Emington, IL
Exceeded the action level in the past
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 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.
Emington at a glance
Emington serves about 101 people through 53 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 Livingston County, Illinois. EPA system ID: IL1050300; phone on file: 815-867-2260. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2024 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Emington is 124 ppb across 8 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 124 ppb over 15 |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
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. Emington's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 4th percentile in Illinois and the 10th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Neighbouring systems
16 other systems share Livingston County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Emington. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Il American-Pontiac | 11,864 | 2 ppb |
| Dwight | 4,400 | 0 (not detected) |
| Fairbury | 3,633 | 0 (not detected) |
| Pontiac Correctional Center | 1,665 | 1.11 ppb |
| Forrest | 1,225 | 0 (not detected) |
| Chatsworth | 1,200 | 0 (not detected) |
| Flanagan | 1,070 | 3.6 ppb |
| Odell | 1,014 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cullom | 563 | 0 (not detected) |
| Cornell | 500 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Emington, IL
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Emington, 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 Emington whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do. Its latest copper 90th percentile is 4693 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.