Cherokee County, North Carolina: drinking water report. Cherokee County – Murphy – serves about 28,000 residents in the far southwestern corner of North…
Cherokee County – Murphy – serves about 28,000 residents in the far southwestern corner of North Carolina. Water comes from the Hiwassee River and mountain tributaries, fed by some of the most heavily forested land in the southern Appalachians.
Cherokee County's mountain sources are naturally clean. UCMR5 data shows no PFAS detections. According to NC DEQ's 2024 data, systems met all standards. The county's remote location and forest cover protect source water from the contamination that affects more developed areas.
Cherokee County's water quality is excellent.
Check your water for data. Our water filter guide covers options. Pull your detailed report, and visit our North Carolina page for statewide data.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Cherokee County, NC.
The EPA places Cherokee County, NC 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.
26% of homes in Cherokee County, NC were built before 1980, and 5% 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 Cherokee County, NC averages 6.4 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 Cherokee County, NC 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. 3 water systems serving Cherokee County, NC carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Lead and Copper Rule Revisions | 2 |
| Lead and Copper 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.