Onslow County, North Carolina: drinking water report. Onslow County – Jacksonville, NC – serves about 200,000 residents, with the population heavily…
Onslow County – Jacksonville, NC – serves about 200,000 residents, with the population heavily influenced by Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base. The county draws from groundwater and the New River. Camp Lejeune's water contamination history is one of the most well-known military environmental disasters in US history.
Camp Lejeune's water was contaminated with volatile organic compounds – trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene, and benzene – from the 1950s through 1985. An estimated 1 million Marines and family members were exposed. The Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 opened the door for victims to file claims. While that contamination has been addressed, PFAS from AFFF firefighting foam use is the newer concern.
According to NC DEQ monitoring and UCMR5 data, PFAS has been detected in both on-base and off-base water systems. The Department of Defense is conducting ongoing PFAS investigation at Camp Lejeune, with remediation expected to take years.
Onslow County's military contamination history makes water quality monitoring essential, particularly near Camp Lejeune.
Check your water for current data. Reverse osmosis provides the strongest household PFAS protection. Our water filter guide covers certified systems. Pull your detailed report, and visit our North Carolina page for statewide data.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Onslow County, NC.
The EPA places Onslow 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.
26% of homes in Onslow County, NC were built before 1980, and 3% 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 Onslow County, NC averages 6.3 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
23 public water systems serving Onslow 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. 14 water systems serving Onslow County, NC carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Lead and Copper Rule | 7 |
| Lead and Copper Rule Revisions | 5 |
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) | 4 |
| Interim Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule | 2 |
| Haloacetic Acids (HAA5) | 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.