Charleston, IL
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3 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
Charleston serves about 17,286 people through 7,000 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Coles County, Illinois. EPA system ID: IL0290100; phone on file: 217-345-8455. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Charleston's lead record
Against the period ending 2025 (2.3 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Charleston is 4.2 ppb across 5 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 3 ppb |
| 2025 | 2.3 ppb |
| 2023 | 2.7 ppb |
| 2020 | 2.6 ppb |
| 2017 | 4.2 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. Charleston's 3 ppb sits at the 81st percentile in Illinois and the 83rd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
8 other systems share Coles County; 0 of them have a higher latest lead result than Charleston. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Mattoon | 19,500 | 0 (not detected) |
| Clear Water Service Corp | 8,900 | 1.1 ppb |
| Eastern Illinois University | 5,500 | 0 (not detected) |
| Embarras Area Water District | 3,750 | 1.4 ppb |
| Oakland | 739 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cooks Mills Water Association | 720 | 0 (not detected) |
| Ashmore | 637 | 0 (not detected) |
| Humboldt | 361 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Charleston, IL 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 Charleston 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. Size matters more than most people expect: small vs large water systems.