Hilltop Wc, CO
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.5 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.
Who runs the water here
Hilltop Wc serves about 285 people through 119 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Otero County, Colorado. EPA system ID: CO0145300; phone on file: 719-254-6242. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Hilltop Wc's lead record
Against the period ending 2024 (2.5 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Hilltop Wc is 5.5 ppb across 11 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.5 ppb |
| 2024 | 2.5 ppb |
| 2023 | 5.5 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 2 ppb |
| 2020 | 2 ppb |
| 2020 | 2 ppb |
| 2019 | 4 ppb |
| 2018 | 2 ppb |
| 2017 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 1.7 ppb |
Against other Colorado systems
Of the 1,025 Colorado systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 1 ppb; 2 are over 15 ppb right now and 71 have gone over at some point. Hilltop Wc's 1.5 ppb sits at the 63rd percentile in Colorado and the 63rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
22 other systems share Otero County; 7 of them have a higher latest lead result than Hilltop Wc. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| La Junta City Of | 8,320 | 1 ppb |
| Rocky Ford City Of | 4,443 | 0 (not detected) |
| Fowler Town Of | 1,169 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bents Fort Wc | 900 | 0.6 ppb |
| Swink Town Of | 660 | 2 ppb |
| South Swink Water Authority | 622 | 3 ppb |
| Eureka Wc | 498 | 0 (not detected) |
| Manzanola Town Of | 497 | 0 (not detected) |
| Newdale Grand Valley Wc | 458 | 0 (not detected) |
| Valley Wc | 270 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Rocky Ford, CO
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Rocky Ford, CO 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 Hilltop Wc 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.