Kotzebue has been over a federal water limit since 2019, one of 92 Alaska systems the state has not formally enforced against since August 2020

Alaska's note on Kotzebue's water system reads: "System has exceeded the TTHM MCL since 2019 and the HAA5 LRAA since 3rd quarter 2023." Those are the federal ceilings for trihalomethanes and for five haloacetic acids, byproducts of disinfection. Kotzebue's own water quality report warns that long-term consumption above those limits may cause liver, kidney or central nervous system problems and increased cancer risk.

Four communities are boiling their water, and a fifth has not returned its boil-water-notice certification. Peters Creek Terrace in Chugiak has been on a boil water notice since 2022 because it cannot maintain pressure on its lower loop. Chignik Lake is on a long-term notice from pressure and water loss through an aging distribution system. Grayling is on one until it files monthly operator reports and samples consistently; the state's note says coliform and chlorine residual samples have not been collected there since a typhoon in October 2025. Saint George is on one after a main line break.

Those systems are among 92 Alaska public water systems, serving 29,185 people, listed as serious violators of the Safe Drinking Water Act, EPA's label for systems whose unresolved violations total 11 or more points on a severity scale. The figures come from the Environmental Protection Agency's compliance database, queried September 9. Alaska has 1,327 active public water systems in the database, about one in fourteen of them on the list. Nationally the rate is about one in forty. EPA expects systems that land on the serious-violator list to return to compliance or be addressed by formal enforcement within six months of being flagged.

One of the 92 has a formal enforcement action counted against it, and it is not the state's. EPA acted against Metlakatla on April 30, 2025, the only one of the 92 its database places in Indian country, where EPA rather than the state holds primacy. Nationally the comparable count is 451 of 3,529, about one in eight.

Thirty-nine of the 92, serving 12,197 people, have never had a formal action of any kind recorded. Fifty-three have, but 48 of those predate 2015, and the newest by the state was against Valley Water Company in Fairbanks on August 10, 2020. A formal action that addresses a system's violations takes it off the list, so every system still on it has current violations no formal action has resolved.

Ninety of the 92 have been the subject of informal action: reminder letters, warning letters, notices of violation, field visits and phone calls. There have been 2,487, and 53 systems had their most recent this year. Two have none on record: Birchwood Camp in Chugiak and Kenai Fjords Tours in Seward.

The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation publishes its own quarterly list, built by EPA from state data. Every one of the 51 systems on its July 2026 list scores 11 or higher, which the department's Enforcement Targeting Tool page calls a national enforcement priority. In a 2023 capacity development strategy, DEC described the tool differently: as a way to focus attention and technical support on systems that are significantly out of compliance, rather than as a penalty mechanism. The record does not show what assistance, if any, occurred in individual cases short of formal enforcement, or whether any system is already funded for a fix and waiting on construction.

Diomede Joint Utilities scores 130 for 83 people and carries 126 unresolved violations, more than any other system. Kotzebue scores 99 for 3,234 people.

Ten systems have exceeded the lead action level and 15 the copper action level, the concentrations at which a system must begin corrective steps. Nine systems have a public notice violation, meaning they failed to tell people there was a problem.

Fourteen systems, serving 9,942 people, have been counted out of compliance in each of the last twelve quarters. Seven of those have no formal enforcement action on record, including Kotzebue, Hooper Bay, Emmonak, Kwethluk, Alakanuk and Grayling. Fifty-two of the 92 systems are owned by tribal governments, and all but Metlakatla are the state's to enforce.

EPA's data dictionary says the determinations "do not necessarily represent a final adjudication by a judicial or administrative body" and should be considered alleged violations.