Crab Orchard Refuge, IL
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 2.2 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. The latest result is under the action level, but this system has gone over 15 ppb before. Lead comes from pipes, not the source water, so a home with a lead service line can still be exposed. Test your own tap.
Who runs the water here
Crab Orchard Refuge serves about 25 people through 3 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is federally owned and draws surface water, in Williamson County, Illinois. EPA system ID: IL1997037; phone on file: 618-998-5980. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Crab Orchard Refuge's lead record
That is up 2.2 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Crab Orchard Refuge is 23 ppb across 11 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2.2 ppb |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 1 ppb |
| 2023 | 1 ppb |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 23 ppb over 15 |
| 2016 | 6 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. Crab Orchard Refuge's 2.2 ppb sits at the 74th percentile in Illinois and the 75th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
23 other systems share Williamson County; 3 of them have a higher latest lead result than Crab Orchard Refuge. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Marion | 16,855 | 1.2 ppb |
| Herrin | 12,747 | 9.8 ppb |
| Lake Of Egypt Pwd | 11,368 | 0 (not detected) |
| Carterville | 6,528 | 7.54 ppb |
| Coal Valley Pwd | 4,023 | 0 (not detected) |
| Corinth Pwd | 3,927 | 4.57 ppb |
| Johnston City | 3,509 | 0 (not detected) |
| Pittsburg | 2,948 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cambria | 1,727 | 0 (not detected) |
| Crainville | 1,711 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Marion, 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 Crab Orchard Refuge 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. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.