Hickory Hills, IL
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2021-2023). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
About Hickory Hills
Hickory Hills serves about 14,505 people through 4,069 service connections, which makes it a large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Cook County, Illinois. EPA system ID: IL0311200; phone on file: 708-598-7855. Ask them for your address in their service line inventory - every system had to publish one by Oct 2024.
Lead results over time
Against the period ending 2020 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Hickory Hills is 0 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2017 | 0 (not detected) |
How Hickory Hills 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. Hickory Hills's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 52nd percentile in Illinois and the 38th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Neighbouring systems
154 other systems share Cook County; 99 of them have a higher latest lead result than Hickory Hills. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Chicago | 2,721,308 | 6.4 ppb |
| Cicero | 83,000 | 5 ppb |
| Schaumburg | 75,750 | 0.87 ppb |
| Evanston | 74,486 | 6.5 ppb |
| Arlington Heights | 73,320 | 7.6 ppb |
| Palatine | 70,875 | 8.9 ppb |
| Skokie | 66,422 | 9.77 ppb |
| Des Plaines | 60,675 | 5.7 ppb |
| Oak Lawn | 58,362 | 9.3 ppb |
| Orland Park | 58,020 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Look up your address in Hickory Hills's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Hickory Hills 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. Why sampled homes are the worst-case ones is in the guide to reading the number. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.