Summit/Highlands, MD
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2021-2023). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
Who runs the water here
Summit/Highlands serves about 1,108 people through 259 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 Calvert County, Maryland. EPA system ID: MD0040026; phone on file: 667-404-0708. 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 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Summit/Highlands is 2 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 2 ppb |
Where this result ranks
Of the 437 Maryland systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 3 are over 15 ppb right now and 21 have gone over at some point. Summit/Highlands's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 39th percentile in Maryland and the 27th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Other water systems in Calvert County
28 other systems share Calvert County; 6 of them have a higher latest lead result than Summit/Highlands. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Chesapeake Ranch Estates | 9,500 | 0 (not detected) |
| Town Of Chesapeake Beach | 5,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Prince Frederick | 4,371 | 0 (not detected) |
| Solomons | 3,811 | 0 (not detected) |
| Town Of North Beach | 3,000 | 0 (not detected) |
| Beaches Water Co-Operative | 2,000 | 1.5 ppb |
| Scientists Cliffs | 1,425 | 0 (not detected) |
| Chesapeake Heights (Bayside Forest) | 1,190 | 3 ppb |
| The Calverton School | 461 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cross Point Subdivision | 434 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Look up your address in Summit/Highlands's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Summit/Highlands 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. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.