Hickory Shade, WI
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.45 ppb (monitoring period 2021-2021). 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.
Hickory Shade at a glance
Hickory Shade serves about 55 people through 24 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Wood County, Wisconsin. EPA system ID: WI7720167. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Lead results over time
That is down 1.33 ppb from 1.78 ppb in the period ending 2018. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Hickory Shade is 1.78 ppb across 2 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 0.45 ppb |
| 2018 | 1.78 ppb |
Against other Wisconsin systems
Of the 947 Wisconsin systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1.33 ppb; 6 are over 15 ppb right now and 71 have gone over at some point. Hickory Shade's 0.45 ppb sits at the 25th percentile in Wisconsin and the 42nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Wood County
12 other systems share Wood County; 10 of them have a higher latest lead result than Hickory Shade. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Wis Rapids Water Works & Lighting Comm | 20,000 | 8.3 ppb |
| Marshfield Utilities | 18,815 | 8.2 ppb |
| Nekoosa Waterworks | 2,394 | 0 (not detected) |
| Port Edwards Water Utility | 1,866 | 2.6 ppb |
| Biron Water Utility | 879 | 0.65 ppb |
| Pittsville Waterworks | 800 | 2.06 ppb |
| Vesper Waterworks | 512 | 1.1 ppb |
| Milladore Waterworks | 280 | 0.49 ppb |
| Pirco Mhp | 97 | 3.77 ppb |
| Prairie Meadow Estates 1 | 50 | 1.08 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Grafton, WI 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 Hickory Shade 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.