Mcdowell County, North Carolina: drinking water report. McDowell County – Marion – serves about 45,000 residents in the western NC foothills.
McDowell County – Marion – serves about 45,000 residents in the western NC foothills. Water comes from the Catawba River headwaters and mountain streams. The county sits at the transition between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Piedmont.
McDowell County benefits from mountain headwater sources that are naturally clean. UCMR5 data shows no significant PFAS detections. According to NC DEQ's 2024 data, county systems met all federal standards.
McDowell County's mountain water sources provide clean drinking water.
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Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Mcdowell County, NC.
The EPA places Mcdowell 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.
44% of homes in Mcdowell County, NC were built before 1980, and 12% 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 Mcdowell County, NC averages 6.5 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
17 public water systems serving McDowell 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. 12 water systems serving McDowell County, NC carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Lead and Copper Rule Revisions | 11 |
| Lead and Copper Rule | 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.