Drinking water quality · 2024
· Verified
· PWSID NC0160010
What's in Charlotte, NC tap water
Only 9 of 27 core regulated contaminants were reported for Charlotte, NC. What was measured is clean — but most of the picture is missing.
- !1 contaminant within 20% of a limit
- !9 of 27 core regulated contaminants reported — 18 never appear in this report
- ✓Nothing over a federal limit
- ✓No open federal violations
+How this score is calculated
Every system starts at 100. Points come off for measured levels, for the federal violation record, and for how much of the core regulated set the utility actually reported. All three inputs are the utility's own published numbers and EPA's own records.
- −0 contaminants at or above a federal limit
- −4 contaminants within 20% of a limit
- −0 open health-based violations
- −0 open monitoring / reporting violations
- −0 health-based violations resolved in the last 5 years
- −16 core regulated contaminants never reported (9/27)
A 90–100 · B 80–89 · C 70–79 · D 60–69 · F below 60. A system reporting under a third of the core set is capped at C however clean its numbers look — a short report is not a clean bill of health.
Full grading methodology, constant for constant →What to worry about
- TTHM80% of the federal limit64 ug/L · limit 80 ug/L
Long-term exposure above the federal limit is linked to liver, kidney, and central-nervous-system effects and increased cancer risk.
higher than 85% of U.S. systems
+19 contaminants were measured and came in below the limitShow all
| Contaminant | Measured | Federal limit |
|---|---|---|
| HAA5 | 21.7 ug/L | 60 ug/L |
| Chlorine | 1.06 mg/L | 4 mg/L |
| Fluoride | 0.68 mg/L | 4 mg/L |
| Bromochloroacetic acid | 3.8 ug/L | 60 ug/L |
| Simazine | 29 ng/L | 4000 ng/L |
| Atrazine | 9.1 ng/L | 3000 ng/L |
| Bromodichloroacetic acid | 1.7 ug/L | — |
| Perchlorate | 0.07 ug/L | 25 ug/L |
| Boron | 31 ug/L | 7 ug/L |
| Chromium, Hexavalent | 0.1 ug/L | — |
| Copper | Not detected mg/L | 1.3 mg/L |
| Lead | Not detected ug/L | 15 ug/L |
| Manganese | 7.7 ug/L | — |
| Strontium | 42 ug/L | 20 ug/L |
| Perfluorohexanoic acid | 2.2 ng/L | — |
| TOC | 0.88 mg/L | — |
| Turbidity | 0.398 | — |
| PFPeA | 3.4 ng/L | — |
| PFBA | 9.700000000000001 ng/L | — |
What this report doesn't tell you
18 of the 27 contaminants a community water system normally reports do not appear anywhere in Charlotte, NC's data. Absent is not the same as absent-from-the-water — it means nobody published a number.
+Full detail: PFAS testing, water source, historical monitoring, and the federal violation record
PFAS — EPA UCMR5 (2023–2025)
2 PFAS compounds detected in Charlotte, NC
The EPA finalized the first-ever federal drinking-water limits for six PFAS compounds in April 2024. These numbers come straight from EPA's UCMR5 lab dataset — every U.S. system serving more than 3,300 people tested every PFAS sample at an entry point to its distribution system. PFAS not listed below were either tested and not detected, or not yet sampled.
PFPeA
● Detected (no federal limit)PFBA
● Detected (no federal limit)Where your water comes from · EPA SDWIS
Charlotte, NC's drinking water comes from surface water, drawn from 2 sources.
Source
- LAKE NORMAN
- MT ISLAND LAKE/CAT RIVER
Treatment
- TREATMENT_PLT_VEST PLANT
- TREATMENT_PLT_FRANKLIN PLANT
- TREATMENT_PLT_LEE S DUKE
Distribution
Compliance history
Federal Safe Drinking Water Act violation & enforcement records (EPA SDWIS). A violation is a regulatory determination by the state or EPA — separate from the measured levels above.
- Treatment technique violationHealth-based2 violations on record · most recent Dec 1993resolved
- Maximum contaminant level exceededHealth-based1 violation on record · most recent Jun 2005resolved
Source: EPA SDWIS / ECHO. View the full federal record on EPA ECHO ↗