Hill City, 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 Hill City
Hill City serves about 872 people through 525 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 Pennington County, South Dakota. EPA system ID: SD4600159; phone on file: 6055742300. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Hill City's lead record
Against the period ending 2024 (1 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Hill City is 1 ppb across 6 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1 ppb |
| 2024 | 1 ppb |
| 2024 | 1 ppb |
| 2023 | 1 ppb |
| 2020 | 1 ppb |
| 2017 | 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. Hill City's 1 ppb sits at the 41st percentile in South Dakota and the 53rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
64 other systems share Pennington County; 35 of them have a higher latest lead result than Hill City. 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 |
| Wall | 699 | 1 ppb |
| New Underwood | 679 | 1 ppb |
| Hisega Meadows Water Inc | 493 | 1 ppb |
| Hart Ranch | 468 | 1 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Hill 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 Hill City whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1380 ppb (copper action level 1,300 ppb).
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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.