Ej Water-Montrose, IL
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1 ppb (monitoring period 2026-2028). 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.
Ej Water-Montrose at a glance
Ej Water-Montrose serves about 201 people through 110 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws groundwater, in Effingham County, Illinois. EPA system ID: IL0490350; phone on file: 217-925-5566. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Every lead result on file
That is down 2.9 ppb from 3.9 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Ej Water-Montrose is 17.9 ppb across 9 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2028 | 1 ppb |
| 2025 | 3.9 ppb |
| 2024 | 0.8 ppb |
| 2023 | 0.7 ppb |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 7.02 ppb |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 17.9 ppb over 15 |
| 2016 | 6.05 ppb |
How Ej Water-Montrose compares
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. Ej Water-Montrose's 1 ppb sits at the 60th percentile in Illinois and the 52nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Neighbouring systems
10 other systems share Effingham County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than Ej Water-Montrose. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Effingham | 12,252 | 1.7 ppb |
| Lake Sara Area Water Co-Op, Inc. | 4,071 | 0 (not detected) |
| Altamont | 2,610 | 1.3 ppb |
| Teutopolis | 2,018 | 0 (not detected) |
| Heartville Pwd | 1,125 | 0 (not detected) |
| Dieterich | 900 | 0 (not detected) |
| Ej Water-Watson | 754 | 1.7 ppb |
| Beecher City | 500 | 12.1 ppb |
| Edgewood | 440 | 0 (not detected) |
| Snake Trail Wtr Assn | 120 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Dieterich, 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 Ej Water-Montrose whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 1440 ppb (copper action level 1,300 ppb).
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. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.