Lincoln County, North Carolina: drinking water report. Lincoln County – Lincolnton – serves about 88,000 residents west of Charlotte.
Lincoln County – Lincolnton – serves about 88,000 residents west of Charlotte. Water comes from the Catawba River system and local streams. The county's position between Charlotte's sprawl and the western foothills creates a mix of suburban and rural water quality dynamics.
Lincoln County draws from the Catawba River, sharing the regional water quality picture with Mecklenburg and Gaston counties. UCMR5 data shows minimal PFAS detections. According to NC DEQ's 2024 data, county systems met all federal standards.
Lincoln County's water quality is adequate, tracking with the Catawba River system's overall health.
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 Lincoln County, NC.
The EPA places Lincoln 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.
32% of homes in Lincoln County, NC were built before 1980, and 8% 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 Lincoln County, NC averages 8.2 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
4 public water systems serving Lincoln 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. 2 water systems serving Lincoln County, NC carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Lead and Copper Rule Revisions | 2 |
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.