Benson Heights, VT
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.8 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. The latest result is under the action level, but this system has gone over 15 ppb before. Lead comes from pipes, not the source water, so a home with a lead service line can still be exposed. Test your own tap.
Benson Heights at a glance
Benson Heights serves about 40 people through 16 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Rutland County, Vermont. EPA system ID: VT0005570; phone on file: 802-775-3139. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2024 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Benson Heights is 17.7 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0.8 ppb |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 0.5 ppb |
| 2022 | 17.7 ppb over 15 |
| 2019 | 0.7 ppb |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
Where this result ranks
Of the 372 Vermont systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.4 ppb; 7 are over 15 ppb right now and 65 have gone over at some point. Benson Heights's 0.8 ppb sits at the 37th percentile in Vermont and the 47th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
49 other systems share Rutland County; 37 of them have a higher latest lead result than Benson Heights. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Rutland City Water Dept | 18,500 | 0 (not detected) |
| Brandon Fire District 1 | 3,963 | 2.2 ppb |
| Fair Haven Water Dept | 3,076 | 2.4 ppb |
| Poultney Water Dept | 2,400 | 2.5 ppb |
| West Rutland Town | 2,400 | 2.2 ppb |
| Proctor Water Dept | 2,000 | 4.3 ppb |
| Castleton Fire District 1 | 1,940 | 1.5 ppb |
| Pittsford Florence Water Dept | 1,652 | 1.4 ppb |
| Mountain Green Condominium | 1,300 | 4.9 ppb |
| Wallingford Fire District 1 | 956 | 4.1 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Rutland, VT 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 Benson Heights 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.