Sparta, IL
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 5.2 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. 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 Sparta
Sparta serves about 4,395 people through 2,151 service connections, which makes it a medium-sized system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Randolph County, Illinois. EPA system ID: IL1570600; phone on file: 618-443-2917. 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 up 4.6 ppb from 0.6 ppb in the period ending 2025. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Sparta is 5.2 ppb across 6 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 5.2 ppb |
| 2025 | 0.6 ppb |
| 2024 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2023 | 1 ppb |
| 2021 | 1 ppb |
| 2018 | 1.5 ppb |
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. Sparta's 5.2 ppb sits at the 88th percentile in Illinois and the 92nd nationally (higher means more lead).
Nearby utilities
13 other systems share Randolph County; 3 of them have a higher latest lead result than Sparta. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Chester | 8,407 | 2.6 ppb |
| Red Bud | 3,804 | 6 ppb |
| Menard Correctional Center | 2,950 | - |
| Egyptian Water Company | 2,543 | 0 (not detected) |
| Steeleville | 1,960 | 2.3 ppb |
| Tilden | 1,350 | 0 (not detected) |
| Coulterville | 1,052 | 1.6 ppb |
| Percy | 961 | 8.3 ppb |
| Prairie Du Rocher | 759 | 7 ppb |
| Evansville | 660 | 0 (not detected) |
Your move
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Sparta, 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 Sparta 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. Systems that went over once often dip back under; here is what that means.