Ophiem Pws, IL
Exceeded the action level in the past
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2026-2026). 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.
Ophiem Pws at a glance
Ophiem Pws serves about 110 people through 44 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Henry County, Illinois. EPA system ID: IL0735150; phone on file: 309-314-7046. They can tell you what your service line is made of and whether they pay to replace it.
Ophiem Pws's lead record
That is down 3 ppb from 3 ppb in the period ending 2024. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Ophiem Pws is 116 ppb across 7 monitoring periods, 1 of them over the 15 ppb action level.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2024 | 3 ppb |
| 2023 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2021 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2020 | 11 ppb over 10 |
| 2018 | 116 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. Ophiem Pws'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.
Other water systems in Henry County
38 other systems share Henry County; 24 of them have a higher latest lead result than Ophiem Pws. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Kewanee | 12,509 | 3.3 ppb |
| Geneseo | 6,539 | 2.7 ppb |
| Colona West | 2,640 | 1.6 ppb |
| Colona East | 2,501 | 1 ppb |
| Galva | 2,449 | 1.4 ppb |
| Cambridge | 2,086 | 1.3 ppb |
| Orion | 1,754 | 5.5 ppb |
| Atkinson | 955 | 2.85 ppb |
| Annawan | 843 | 0 (not detected) |
| Woodhull | 771 | 1.5 ppb |
Next steps for Alpha, IL
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Alpha, 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 Ophiem Pws 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. Why an old exceedance still matters: over the limit before, under it now.