Unity Water Corporation, IL
Lead detected, under the action levels
Latest 90th-percentile lead: 0.7 ppb (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. 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.
Unity Water Corporation at a glance
Unity Water Corporation serves about 93 people through 37 service connections, which makes it a very small system under EPA's size classes. It is privately owned and draws groundwater, in Mercer County, Illinois. EPA system ID: IL1315300; phone on file: 309-948-4479. Call that number and ask whether your address has a lead, galvanized or unknown service line.
Unity Water Corporation's lead record
Against the period ending 2020 (1.5 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Unity Water Corporation is 4.1 ppb across 3 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 0.7 ppb |
| 2020 | 1.5 ppb |
| 2017 | 4.1 ppb |
Against other Illinois systems
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. Unity Water Corporation's 0.7 ppb sits at the 57th percentile in Illinois and the 46th nationally (higher means more lead).
Other water systems in Mercer County
13 other systems share Mercer County; 8 of them have a higher latest lead result than Unity Water Corporation. 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 | - |
| Joy | 377 | 1.7 ppb |
Next steps for Sherrard, IL
Test your own tap with a certified lab first-draw sample; Sherrard, 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 Unity Water Corporation 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. The action level is dropping - the 10 ppb rule from 2027.