Guilford County, North Carolina: drinking water report. Guilford County – Greensboro and High Point – serves about 540,000 residents in the central North…
Guilford County – Greensboro and High Point – serves about 540,000 residents in the central North Carolina Piedmont. Greensboro draws from Lake Brandt, Lake Higgins, and Lake Townsend, all local reservoirs. The city operates its own watershed protection program to maintain source water quality.
Greensboro's local reservoir system provides cleaner source water than cities drawing from large river systems. UCMR5 data shows low-level PFAS detections. The county does not host major military installations.
According to NC DEQ's 2024 monitoring data, Greensboro's system met all federal standards. The city's proactive watershed management – including land acquisition and development restrictions around the reservoirs – has helped maintain water quality despite suburban growth in the watershed.
Guilford County benefits from protected local reservoirs and competent treatment. Water quality is consistently good.
Check your water for data in your area. Even with a clean supply, a carbon filter improves taste. 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 Guilford County, NC.
The EPA places Guilford County, NC in Zone 3 - the EPA's lowest-risk category, with a predicted average indoor radon level below 2 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.
42% of homes in Guilford County, NC were built before 1980, and 9% 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 Guilford County, NC averages 8.3 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
29 public water systems serving Guilford 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. 10 water systems serving Guilford County, NC carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Lead and Copper Rule Revisions | 5 |
| Lead and Copper Rule | 3 |
| Revised Total Coliform Rule | 1 |
| Surface Water Treatment Rule | 1 |
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) | 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.