Alpha, IL
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (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. 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.
Alpha at a glance
Alpha serves about 626 people through 354 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 Henry County, Illinois. EPA system ID: IL0730050; phone on file: 309-629-9881. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Alpha's lead record
That is down 7.6 ppb from 7.6 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Alpha is 7.6 ppb across 8 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2025 | 7.6 ppb |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 1.1 ppb |
| 2020 | 2.1 ppb |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 1.8 ppb |
Against other Illinois systems
Of the 1,744 Illinois systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 22 are over 15 ppb right now and 152 have gone over at some point. Alpha's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 23rd percentile in Illinois and the 24th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Other water systems in Henry County
38 other systems share Henry County; 24 of them have a higher latest lead result than Alpha. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Kewanee | 12,509 | 3.3 ppb |
| Geneseo | 6,539 | 2.7 ppb |
| Colona West | 2,640 | 1.6 ppb |
| Colona East | 2,501 | 1 ppb |
| Galva | 2,449 | 1.4 ppb |
| Cambridge | 2,086 | 1.3 ppb |
| Orion | 1,754 | 5.5 ppb |
| Atkinson | 955 | 2.85 ppb |
| Annawan | 843 | 0 (not detected) |
| Woodhull | 771 | 1.5 ppb |
What to do in your house
Look up your address in Alpha'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 Alpha 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.