Wake County, North Carolina: drinking water report. Wake County – Raleigh and surrounding communities including Cary, Apex, and Holly Springs – serves
Wake County – Raleigh and surrounding communities including Cary, Apex, and Holly Springs – serves about 1.15 million residents. The City of Raleigh draws from Falls Lake and Lake Benson, while the Town of Cary sources from Jordan Lake. These reservoirs are fed by tributaries of the Neuse and Cape Fear river systems, which drain agricultural and suburban landscapes across the North Carolina Piedmont.
Jordan Lake and Falls Lake have both experienced nutrient enrichment that fuels algal growth. The North Carolina DEQ has placed both reservoirs under nutrient management strategies, requiring upstream communities to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus loading. Algal blooms increase organic content in source water, which in turn increases disinfection byproduct formation during treatment.
UCMR5 data shows PFAS detections in Wake County water systems. The Cape Fear River basin downstream has received national attention for PFAS contamination from the Chemours Fayetteville Works facility, but contamination also appears in the upper basin. According to NC DEQ's 2024 monitoring data, four public water systems in Wake County reported PFAS above state screening levels.
Wake County's rapid growth means both Raleigh and Cary are continually expanding treatment capacity and distribution systems. New neighborhoods may experience variability as infrastructure stabilizes.
Check your water to see data for your ZIP code and provider. Activated carbon filters handle disinfection byproducts, while reverse osmosis addresses PFAS more effectively. Our water filter guide covers both. Pull your detailed report, and visit our North Carolina page for statewide patterns.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Wake County, NC.
The EPA places Wake 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.
20% of homes in Wake 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 Wake County, NC averages 7.6 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
Across 737 public water systems serving Wake County, NC with EPA lead testing on record, 21 (2.8%) reported a 90th-percentile lead result above the EPA's 15 ppb action level, and the median is 0 ppb. 109 water systems serving Wake County, NC carry a health-based EPA Safe Drinking Water Act violation.
| Most-cited violation type | Systems affected |
|---|---|
| Lead and Copper Rule | 74 |
| Lead and Copper Rule Revisions | 15 |
| Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM) | 6 |
| Gross Alpha (excl. radon & uranium) | 6 |
| Combined Radium (226 + 228) | 4 |
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.