Drinking water quality · 2024

· Verified

· PWSID NC0465199

What's in Wilmington, NC tap water

C
Water quality score
74/ 100Limited data

Only 9 of 27 core regulated contaminants were reported for Wilmington, 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
  • 6  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

  • HFPO-DA (GenX chemicals)84% of the federal limit
    8.4 ng/L · limit 10 ng/L

    Regulated by the EPA at 10 parts per trillion and included in the PFAS Hazard Index.

+36 contaminants were measured and came in below the limitShow all
ContaminantMeasured
Chlorine0.35–2.2 mg/L
Gross Alpha6.29 pCi/L
Combined Radium1.43 pCi/L
Lead0.003 mg/L
Turbidity0.19 NTU
PFOS0.677 ng/L
Fluoride0.66 mg/L
PFOA0.578 ng/L
Perfluorohexanesulfonic acid0.739 ng/L
Copper90 ug/L
Bromate0.39 ug/L
Lithium2.76 ug/L
Escherichia coli (E. coli)0
11-Chloroeicosafluoro-3-oxaundecane-1-sulfonic acid (11Cl-PF3OUdS)Not detected ng/L
4,8-Dioxa-3H-perfluorononanoic acid (ADONA)Not detected ng/L
9-Chlorohexadecafluoro-3-oxanonane-1-sulfonic acid (9Cl-PF3ONS)Not detected ng/L
N-ethyl perfluorooctanesulfonamidoacetic acid (NEtFOSAA)Not detected ng/L
N-methyl perfluorooctanesulfonamidoacetic acid (NMeFOSAA)Not detected ng/L
Nonafluoro-3,6-dioxaheptanoic acidNot detected ng/L
Perfluoro-3-methoxypropanoic acid (PFMPA)2.11 ng/L
Perfluoro-4-methoxybutanoic acid (PFMBA)Not detected ng/L
Perfluoro(2-ethoxyethane)sulfonic acid (PFEESA)Not detected ng/L
Perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA)Not detected ng/L
Perfluorododecanoic acid (PFDoA)Not detected ng/L
Perfluoroheptanesulfonic acid (PFHpS)Not detected ng/L
Perfluoroheptanoic acid0.277 ng/L
Perfluorohexanoic acid0.396 ng/L
Perfluorononanoic acidNot detected ng/L
Perfluoropentanesulfonic acid (PFPeS)0.086 ng/L
Perfluoropentanoic acid0.515 ng/L
Perfluorotetradecanoic acid (PFTeDA)Not detected ng/L
Perfluorotridecanoic acid (PFTrDA)Not detected ng/L
Perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnA)Not detected ng/L
PFBA1.21 ng/L
TOC2.13
PFBS4.6 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 Wilmington, NC's data. Absent is not the same as absent-from-the-water — it means nobody published a number.

ArsenicNitrate / nitriteTrihalomethanes (TTHM)Haloacetic acids (HAA5)BariumChromiumSeleniumAntimonyCadmiumMercuryThalliumBerylliumCyanideUraniumAtrazine / simazineTetrachloroethylene (PCE)Trichloroethylene (TCE)Benzene
Browse the mapFull source report ↗
+Full detail: PFAS testing, water source, historical monitoring, and the federal violation record

PFAS — EPA UCMR5 (2023–2025)

1 PFAS compound approaching EPA limits in Wilmington, NC

About this data

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.

HFPO-DA (GenX chemicals)

● Approaching limit (84%)
Measured 8.4 ng/LEPA limit 10 ng/LSample year 2025Samples 2 detect / 24

PFBS

● Detected (no federal limit)
Measured 4.6 ng/LSample year 2025Samples 5 detect / 24
PWSID NC0465199 · Source: EPA UCMR5. Limits per EPA's April 2024 PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation. PFAS values reported in nanograms per liter (ng/L) — note that 1 ng/L = 1 part per trillion.

Where your water comes from · EPA SDWIS

Wilmington, NC's drinking water comes from ground water, drawn from 12 sources.

Source

12ground water
  • WELL #1_SCHOONER
  • WELL #2_ELEVATED TANK
  • WELL #3_TILDALHOLM
  • WELL #4_ARRONDALE
  • + 8 more

Treatment

12treatment plants
  • TREATMENT_PLT_WELL #1_SCHOONER
  • TREATMENT_PLT_WELL #2_ELEVATED TANK
  • TREATMENT_PLT_WELL #3_TIDALHOLM
  • + 9 more

Distribution

3storage units

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.

  • Maximum contaminant level exceededHealth-based
    9 violations on record · most recent Jan 2020
    resolved

Source: EPA SDWIS / ECHO. View the full federal record on EPA ECHO ↗

Source: Wilmington, NC's 2024 Consumer Confidence Report — the annual drinking-water report every U.S. utility is required to publish. The numbers on this page are the utility's own. A water-quality report covers an entire service area, not a single address.
The grade at the top of this page is computed, not editorial. See exactly how we grade water systems — every deduction, every ceiling, every threshold.

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