Ej Water-Watson, IL
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.7 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-Watson at a glance
Ej Water-Watson serves about 754 people through 297 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 surface water, in Effingham County, Illinois. EPA system ID: IL0490500; phone on file: 217-925-5566. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lead results over time
That is down 1.5 ppb from 3.2 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Ej Water-Watson is 36 ppb across 11 monitoring periods, 4 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2028 | 1.7 ppb |
| 2025 | 3.2 ppb |
| 2024 | 1 ppb |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 3.6 ppb |
| 2022 | 4.5 ppb |
| 2021 | 27 ppb over 15 |
| 2021 | 22 ppb over 15 |
| 2020 | 1.9 ppb |
| 2018 | 24 ppb over 15 |
| 2017 | 36 ppb over 15 |
Where this result ranks
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-Watson's 1.7 ppb sits at the 69th percentile in Illinois and the 66th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Effingham County
10 other systems share Effingham County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Ej Water-Watson. 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) |
| Beecher City | 500 | 12.1 ppb |
| Edgewood | 440 | 0 (not detected) |
| Ej Water-Montrose | 201 | 1 ppb |
| Snake Trail Wtr Assn | 120 | 0 (not detected) |
What to do in your house
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-Watson 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. More in what a past exceedance means today.