Shungnak Water System, AK
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.5 ppb (monitoring period 2025-2025). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. Lead was measured in sampled homes but the 90th percentile is under both action levels. EPA's health goal for lead is zero, so test your own tap if your home was built before 1986 or anyone in it is pregnant or a young child.
Who runs the water here
Shungnak Water System serves about 299 people through 68 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a Native American tribe and draws surface water, in Northwest Arctic Borough County, Alaska. EPA system ID: AK2340361; phone on file: 907-437-2161. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
That is up 1.58 ppb from 0.92 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Shungnak Water System is 3 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.5 ppb |
| 2025 | 0.92 ppb |
| 2024 | 3 ppb |
| 2023 | 0.9 ppb |
| 2021 | 2.55 ppb |
| 2019 | 1 ppb |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
Where this result ranks
Of the 394 Alaska systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.6 ppb; 3 are over 15 ppb right now and 53 have gone over at some point. Shungnak Water System's 2.5 ppb sits at the 68th percentile in Alaska and the 77th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
10 other systems share Northwest Arctic Borough County; 3 of them have a higher latest lead result than Shungnak Water System. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Kotzebue Mun. Water System | 3,234 | 45 ppb |
| Selawik Safewater Facility | 846 | 1.7 ppb |
| Noorvik Water System | 735 | 2.06 ppb |
| Buckland Water System | 600 | 2.2 ppb |
| Noatak Community Water System | 485 | 0.25 ppb |
| Kiana Water System | 455 | 0.52 ppb |
| Kivalina Water System | 452 | 0 (not detected) |
| Ambler Community Water System | 261 | 1.08 ppb |
| Deering Utility System | 160 | 5.4 ppb |
| Kobuk Water System | 93 | 2.65 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Shungnak, AK may offer free or low-cost kits through the utility. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Shungnak Water System whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1500 ppb (copper action level 1,300 ppb).
These figures describe homes the utility sampled, not your tap. Only your service line record or a test of your own water answers the question for your house. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.