Wards Cove Water Users, MT
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). 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.
Wards Cove Water Users at a glance
Wards Cove Water Users serves about 45 people through 17 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Ravalli County, Montana. EPA system ID: MT0003277; phone on file: 406-381-1107. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Wards Cove Water Users's lead record
That is down 3 ppb from 5 ppb in the period ending 2018. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Wards Cove Water Users is 5 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 2 ppb |
| 2018 | 5 ppb |
Against other Montana systems
Of the 753 Montana systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 5 are over 15 ppb right now and 28 have gone over at some point. Wards Cove Water Users's 2 ppb sits at the 64th percentile in Montana and the 69th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Ravalli County
22 other systems share Ravalli County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Wards Cove Water Users. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Hamilton City Of | 5,660 | 2 ppb |
| Stevensville Town Of | 2,090 | 0 (not detected) |
| Darby Town Of | 850 | 0 (not detected) |
| Pinesdale Town Of | 800 | 2 ppb |
| Trapper Creek Job Corps | 275 | 6 ppb |
| Kootenai Creek Village | 175 | 1 ppb |
| Stock Farm The | 150 | 2 ppb |
| Daly Estates Subdivision | 123 | 0 (not detected) |
| Wild Flower Hoa The | 120 | 1 ppb |
| Centennial Homeowner'S Association, Inc | 115 | 2 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Hamilton, MT 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 Wards Cove Water Users whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do.
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.