Highland Hills, SD
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2 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. 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.
Who runs the water here
Highland Hills serves about 38 people through 17 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Pennington County, South Dakota. EPA system ID: SD4600050. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2020 (3 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Highland Hills is 3 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 2 ppb |
| 2020 | 3 ppb |
| 2017 | 2 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. Highland Hills's 2 ppb sits at the 52nd percentile in South Dakota and the 69th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
64 other systems share Pennington County; 17 of them have a higher latest lead result than Highland Hills. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Rapid City | 72,009 | 6 ppb |
| Box Elder | 14,000 | 2 ppb |
| Rapid Valley Sanitary District | 11,408 | 3 ppb |
| Ellsworth Afb | 9,100 | 1 ppb |
| Colonial Pine Hills Sanitary Distric | 1,200 | 1 ppb |
| Chapel Lane Water Company | 1,200 | 2 ppb |
| Hill City | 872 | 1 ppb |
| Wall | 699 | 1 ppb |
| New Underwood | 679 | 1 ppb |
| Hisega Meadows Water Inc | 493 | 1 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Rapid City, 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 Highland Hills 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.