Garretson, SD
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1 ppb (monitoring period 2023-2023). 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.
Garretson at a glance
Garretson serves about 1,228 people through 511 service connections, which makes it a small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Minnehaha County, South Dakota. EPA system ID: SD4600138; phone on file: 6055946723. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2020 (1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Garretson is 34 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 1 ppb |
| 2020 | 1 ppb |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 34 ppb over 15 |
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. Garretson's 1 ppb sits at the 44th percentile in South Dakota and the 54th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
13 other systems share Minnehaha County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Garretson. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Sioux Falls | 216,462 | 3 ppb |
| Brandon | 11,048 | 1 ppb |
| Dell Rapids | 3,633 | 2 ppb |
| Hartford | 3,396 | 1 ppb |
| Crooks | 1,362 | 1 ppb |
| Baltic | 1,271 | 1 ppb |
| Valley Springs | 925 | 0 (not detected) |
| Colton | 738 | 1 ppb |
| Humboldt | 579 | 1 ppb |
| Pine Lake Hills | 320 | 2 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Garretson, 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 Garretson 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.