Equality, IL
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 3.7 ppb (monitoring period 2022-2024). 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.
About Equality
Equality serves about 652 people through 305 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 groundwater, in Gallatin County, Illinois. EPA system ID: IL0590050; phone on file: 618-276-4248. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Every lead result on file
That is down 6.3 ppb from 10 ppb in the period ending 2021. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Equality is 10 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2024 | 3.7 ppb |
| 2021 | 10 ppb |
| 2018 | 0 (not detected) |
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. Equality's 3.7 ppb sits at the 83rd percentile in Illinois and the 86th nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
6 other systems share Gallatin County; 1 of them has a higher latest lead result than Equality. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Gallatin-White Water District | 1,370 | 5.85 ppb |
| Shawneetown | 1,054 | 0 (not detected) |
| Ridgway | 874 | 0 (not detected) |
| New Haven | 424 | 0 (not detected) |
| Omaha | 234 | 0 (not detected) |
| Old Shawneetown | 118 | 0 (not detected) |
Next steps for Equality, IL
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Equality, 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 Equality 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. The lead result guide covers how utilities pick the homes they sample. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.