Lee County, North Carolina: drinking water report. Lee County – Sanford – serves about 62,000 residents in the transition zone between the Piedmont and…
Lee County – Sanford – serves about 62,000 residents in the transition zone between the Piedmont and Coastal Plain. The City of Sanford draws from the Deep River and local reservoirs. The county is home to several industrial operations, including brick manufacturing and other clay-based industries.
Lee County's water sources are small Piedmont streams and reservoirs. UCMR5 data shows minimal PFAS detections. According to NC DEQ's 2024 monitoring data, county systems met all federal standards.
The Deep River's water quality is influenced by upstream communities and agricultural operations. The relatively small size of the source water system means contamination events have less dilution than in larger river systems.
Lee County's smaller system means less dilution capacity for contaminant events. Regular monitoring is worthwhile.
Check your water for data specific to your area. A carbon filter handles 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 Lee County, NC.
The EPA places Lee 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.
38% of homes in Lee County, NC 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 Lee County, NC averages 7.7 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
9 public water systems serving Lee 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. 7 water systems serving Lee County, NC carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Lead and Copper Rule Revisions | 3 |
| Ground Water Rule | 1 |
| Gross Alpha (excl. radon & uranium) | 1 |
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) | 1 |
| 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.