Joy, IL
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.7 ppb (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.
Joy at a glance
Joy serves about 377 people through 198 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 Mercer County, Illinois. EPA system ID: IL1310100; phone on file: 309-584-4127. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Lead results over time
That is up 1.7 ppb from 0 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Joy is 16 ppb across 11 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1.7 ppb |
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2024 | 4.88 ppb |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 2.4 ppb |
| 2022 | 2 ppb |
| 2022 | 5 ppb |
| 2021 | 9.5 ppb |
| 2016 | 16 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. Joy's 1.7 ppb sits at the 69th percentile in Illinois and the 66th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Mercer County
13 other systems share Mercer County; 5 of them have a higher latest lead result than Joy. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Aledo | 3,470 | 3 ppb |
| Viola | 869 | 0 (not detected) |
| Sherrard | 785 | 1.9 ppb |
| Fyre Lake Water Company | 760 | 2.2 ppb |
| Keithsburg | 747 | 0 (not detected) |
| New Windsor | 740 | 6.2 ppb |
| Matherville | 651 | 11.6 ppb |
| New Boston | 613 | 0 (not detected) |
| Forrest Brooke Mhp | 491 | - |
| North Henderson | 172 | 1.3 ppb |
Next steps for Joy, IL
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Joy, 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 Joy 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. More in what a past exceedance means today.