Madison County, Alabama: drinking water report. Madison County in northern Alabama includes Huntsville, the state's most populous city, with a county…
Madison County in northern Alabama includes Huntsville, the state's most populous city, with a county population of about 395,000. Huntsville Utilities draws water from the Tennessee River and from springs and wells along the south slope of Monte Sano Mountain. Redstone Arsenal, a major Army installation and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, occupies a significant portion of the county and has shaped both the local economy and the local contamination landscape.
Redstone Arsenal has a complex environmental history. The facility has been used for chemical weapons testing, rocket propulsion research, and military manufacturing since the 1940s. According to the Army's 2024 environmental status report, over 250 contamination sites have been identified on the installation, including areas with PFAS, TCE, perchlorate, and heavy metals in groundwater. PFAS contamination from AFFF firefighting foam has been confirmed at multiple locations on the base.
The Tennessee River supplies the bulk of Huntsville's drinking water, and the river's quality is generally good at the intake point upstream of the city. However, the EPA's UCMR5 data shows PFAS detections in the Huntsville system. A 2023 ADEM assessment documented PFAS at concentrations above 10 ppt in two public water systems in the county.
Proximity to Redstone Arsenal is the primary risk factor in Madison County. Residents in neighborhoods adjacent to the base or downstream of its groundwater flow should be particularly attentive to monitoring data.
Check your water to see results for your ZIP code. For PFAS, reverse osmosis systems certified to NSF 58 provide the strongest household protection. Our water filter guide compares removal rates across brands. Pull your detailed report for multi-year trends, and visit our Alabama page for statewide context.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Madison County, AL.
The EPA places Madison County, AL 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.
34% of homes in Madison County, AL were built before 1980, and 4% 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 Madison County, AL averages 8.1 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
10 public water systems serving Madison County, AL 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. 1 water systems serving Madison County, AL carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Lead and Copper Rule Revisions | 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.