Cleveland County, North Carolina: drinking water report. Cleveland County – Shelby – serves about 100,000 residents in the western Piedmont.
Cleveland County – Shelby – serves about 100,000 residents in the western Piedmont. Water comes from the First Broad River and local reservoirs. The county's textile and manufacturing history has declined, but the economic transition continues.
Cleveland County's surface water sources provide adequate supply. UCMR5 data shows minimal PFAS detections. According to NC DEQ's 2024 data, county systems met federal standards. Former textile mill sites have undergone some environmental assessment, but contamination has primarily been in soils rather than drinking water.
Cleveland County's water quality meets standards. Local source water is generally clean.
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 Cleveland County, NC.
The EPA places Cleveland County, NC 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.
52% of homes in Cleveland County, NC 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 Cleveland County, NC averages 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
18 public water systems serving Cleveland 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. 11 water systems serving Cleveland County, NC carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Lead and Copper Rule | 5 |
| Lead and Copper Rule Revisions | 3 |
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) | 2 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) | 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.