Royal Lakes, IL
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 1.7 ppb (monitoring period 2024-2026). 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.
Royal Lakes at a glance
Royal Lakes serves about 235 people through 117 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 surface water, in Macoupin County, Illinois. EPA system ID: IL1170830; phone on file: 314-609-8818. 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 2023 (1.4 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Royal Lakes is 14 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb (1 over 10 ppb).
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 1.7 ppb |
| 2023 | 1.4 ppb |
| 2020 | 3 ppb |
| 2017 | 14 ppb over 10 |
How Royal Lakes 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. Royal Lakes's 1.7 ppb sits at the 69th percentile in Illinois and the 66th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Macoupin County
29 other systems share Macoupin County; 4 of them have a higher latest lead result than Royal Lakes. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Carlinville | 6,598 | 0 (not detected) |
| Staunton | 5,756 | 0 (not detected) |
| Brighton | 5,041 | 2.8 ppb |
| Gillespie | 3,737 | 0 (not detected) |
| Virden | 3,274 | 0 (not detected) |
| Mount Olive | 2,193 | 9.9 ppb |
| Girard | 1,885 | 2.7 ppb |
| Central Macoupin County Rwd | 1,883 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bunker Hill | 1,760 | 1 ppb |
| Benld | 1,612 | 0.1 ppb |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Royal Lakes, 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 Royal Lakes 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.