Tea, SD
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2024). 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 Tea
Tea serves about 7,381 people through 1,944 service connections, which makes it a medium-sized system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Lincoln County, South Dakota. EPA system ID: SD4600409; phone on file: 6054982906. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
That is down 5 ppb from 6 ppb in the period ending 2021. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Tea is 6 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 1 ppb |
| 2021 | 6 ppb |
| 2018 | 2 ppb |
Against other South Dakota systems
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. Tea's 1 ppb sits at the 48th percentile in South Dakota and the 55th nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
5 other systems share Lincoln County; 2 of them have a higher latest lead result than Tea. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Harrisburg | 10,297 | 1 ppb |
| Canton | 3,066 | 3 ppb |
| Lennox | 2,571 | 1 ppb |
| Worthing | 939 | 1 ppb |
| Hudson | 332 | 4 ppb |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Tea, 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 Tea 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.