Big Sheep Cliff, NC
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2023-2025). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
About Big Sheep Cliff
Big Sheep Cliff serves about 175 people through 69 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Jackson County, North Carolina. EPA system ID: NC0150169; phone on file: 828-251-1900. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Big Sheep Cliff's lead record
The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Big Sheep Cliff is 0 ppb across 1 monitoring period, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
How Big Sheep Cliff compares
Of the 1,925 North Carolina systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 5 are over 15 ppb right now and 75 have gone over at some point. Big Sheep Cliff's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 34th percentile in North Carolina and the 14th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Nearby utilities
35 other systems share Jackson County; 10 of them have a higher latest lead result than Big Sheep Cliff. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Western Carolina Univ Wtp | 7,800 | 0 (not detected) |
| Tuckaseigee Water & Sewer Auth | 7,528 | 0 (not detected) |
| Fairfield Sapphire | 3,873 | 0 (not detected) |
| Hh Water, Llc | 770 | 0 (not detected) |
| Trillium Links & Village | 610 | 0 (not detected) |
| Highlands Cove S/D | 604 | 0 (not detected) |
| Mountain Top Golf & Lake Club | 467 | 0 (not detected) |
| Wade Hampton Club | 429 | 0 (not detected) |
| Trillium Links West | 424 | 2.5 ppb |
| Bear Lake Reserve 1b | 396 | 4.9 ppb |
Next steps for Asheville, NC
Look up your address in Big Sheep Cliff's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Big Sheep Cliff 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. A zero today does not rule out a jump later - the rules are tightening in 2027.