Dekalb County, Georgia: drinking water report. DeKalb County borders Atlanta to the east, serving about 760,000 residents.
DeKalb County borders Atlanta to the east, serving about 760,000 residents. The DeKalb County Department of Watershed Management draws from the Chattahoochee River via the city of Atlanta's system and from the South River through its own Scott Candler treatment plant. The county has faced recurring infrastructure challenges, including aging distribution mains and treatment plant capacity issues that have periodically affected water quality.
DeKalb County has been under a federal consent decree since 2010 for Clean Water Act violations related to sanitary sewer overflows. While the consent decree primarily addresses wastewater, the underlying infrastructure problems – aging pipes, deferred maintenance – affect the distribution side as well. Boil-water advisories have been issued multiple times in recent years following water main breaks.
UCMR5 data shows low-level PFAS detections in the DeKalb system. According to the Georgia Environmental Protection Division's 2024 monitoring data, PFAS concentrations were below proposed federal MCLs. The more immediate water quality risks in DeKalb are related to infrastructure – lead from older service connections and bacterial contamination from pressure loss events.
Infrastructure reliability is the top concern in DeKalb County. If your neighborhood has experienced boil-water advisories, a point-of-use filter with bacterial reduction capabilities is worth considering as a permanent fixture.
Check your water for data in your area. A filter certified for lead and bacterial reduction addresses the most common DeKalb-specific risks. Our water filter guide covers which types work. Pull your detailed report, and see our Georgia page for statewide patterns.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Dekalb County, GA.
The EPA places Dekalb County, GA 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.
47% of homes in Dekalb County, GA were built before 1980, and 6% 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 Dekalb County, GA averages 9.5 µg/m³, above 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
8 public water systems serving DeKalb County, GA 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 DeKalb County, GA carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Lead and Copper Rule | 1 |
| Total Coliform Rule | 1 |
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) | 1 |
| 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.