Anderson County, South Carolina: drinking water report. Anderson County serves about 205,000 residents in the South Carolina Upstate.
Anderson County serves about 205,000 residents in the South Carolina Upstate. Anderson Regional Joint Water System draws from Lake Hartwell, a large Army Corps of Engineers reservoir on the Savannah River at the Georgia-South Carolina border. The lake provides abundant water, though it has a history of contamination from upstream industrial sites.
Lake Hartwell was contaminated with PCBs from the former Sangamo Weston/Schlumberger facility in Pickens, SC – a Superfund site whose contamination entered the lake through Town Creek. While PCB levels have declined since the plant closed, fish consumption advisories remain in effect for parts of the lake. The contamination is primarily in sediments and fish tissue rather than treated drinking water.
UCMR5 data shows minimal PFAS detections in Anderson County systems. According to the South Carolina DHEC's 2024 monitoring data, the drinking water system met all federal standards.
Anderson County's drinking water treatment effectively removes contaminants from Lake Hartwell water. The PCB issue is primarily an ecological and fish consumption concern.
Check your water for current data. A carbon filter handles taste. Our water filter guide covers options. Pull your detailed report, and visit our South Carolina page for statewide data.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Anderson County, SC.
The EPA places Anderson County, SC in Zone 2 - a moderate-risk category, with a predicted average indoor radon level between 2 and 4 pCi/L. Zone maps predict an area's radon potential from geology and existing indoor readings; they say nothing about a specific house. Testing is the only way to know your own level.
40% of homes in Anderson County, SC were built before 1980, and 7% before 1950. Residential lead paint was banned in 1978, so housing age is the strongest available proxy for lead-paint exposure. This describes the county's housing stock, not any one home.
Modelled annual fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) in Anderson County, SC averages 8.8 µg/m³, within the EPA's annual standard of 9 µg/m³. These are CDC modelled county estimates rather than readings from a specific monitor.
How radon zones work · Air quality by county · Lead exposure guide
20 public water systems serving Anderson County, SC have EPA lead testing on record. The reported lead sample skews toward systems that already flagged a problem, so its exceedance rate is not directly comparable with other areas. 2 water systems serving Anderson County, SC carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) | 1 |
| Lead and Copper Rule | 1 |
| Revised Total Coliform Rule | 1 |
Source: EPA Lead and Copper Rule 90th-percentile tap sampling and EPA SDWIS Safe Drinking Water Act enforcement records, aggregated from the public water systems serving this county. Figures are counts of water systems, not a test of any individual home or tap.