Blount County, Tennessee: drinking water report. Blount County south of Knoxville has about 133,000 residents, with Maryville as the county seat.
Blount County south of Knoxville has about 133,000 residents, with Maryville as the county seat. The county lies between the urban Knoxville metro and the Great Smoky Mountains, drawing water from the Little River and groundwater. ALCOA (the aluminum company) was founded here and operated a massive smelter for decades, giving the town of Alcoa its name.
The ALCOA smelter operation left fluoride contamination in soil and groundwater near the facility. According to Tennessee DEC's 2024 site assessment, fluoride concentrations in monitoring wells near the former smelter exceed 4 mg/L in some locations – above the MCL. The facility has been largely remediated, but residual contamination persists in the immediate vicinity.
The Little River supply benefits from a largely forested watershed in the Great Smoky Mountains, producing clean source water. A 2024 DEC compliance report confirmed that all Blount County public water systems met federal standards. PFAS from McGhee Tyson Airport (located partly in Blount County) has been detected at 12 ppt in monitoring wells near the airport.
Blount County benefits from excellent mountain-sourced water. The primary contamination concerns are localized – fluoride near the former ALCOA smelter and PFAS near McGhee Tyson Airport. If you are outside these areas on a municipal system, your risk is minimal.
Check your water for data at your specific address. For residents near contamination sources, reverse osmosis handles fluoride and PFAS effectively. For most county residents, a carbon filter addresses taste and chlorine. Our water filter guide covers both scenarios. Pull your detailed report for local data, and visit our Tennessee page for statewide context.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Blount County, TN.
The EPA places Blount County, TN in Zone 1 - the EPA's highest-risk category, where the predicted average indoor radon level is above 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.
39% of homes in Blount County, TN were built before 1980, and 11% 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 Blount County, TN averages 7.4 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
7 public water systems serving Blount County, TN 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 Blount County, TN carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) | 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.