Butte-Meade Swd-Vale Well, SD
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1 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.
About Butte-Meade Swd-Vale Well
Butte-Meade Swd-Vale Well serves about 357 people through 143 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Butte,Meade County, South Dakota. EPA system ID: SD4602314; phone on file: 6054562288. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Butte-Meade Swd-Vale Well's lead record
Against the period ending 2022 (1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Butte-Meade Swd-Vale Well is 4 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 ppb |
| 2022 | 1 ppb |
| 2019 | 4 ppb |
| 2016 | 1 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 458 South Dakota systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 2 ppb; 0 are over 15 ppb right now and 6 have gone over at some point. Butte-Meade Swd-Vale Well's 1 ppb sits at the 33rd percentile in South Dakota and the 53rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Butte,Meade County
1 other system shares Butte,Meade County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Butte-Meade Swd-Vale Well. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Butte-Meade Swd-Bean Well | 1,481 | 1 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Newell, SD 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 Butte-Meade Swd-Vale Well 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.