Burlington, North Carolina

What is the Water Quality in Burlington, North Carolina?

Compared to other US cities, Burlington water quality ranks in the high range for contamination excluding Lead.

Most of their 30 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Arsenic is at extremely high levels: 125x health guidelines.
• PFOA is also at extremely high levels: 206x health guidelines.

Let’s look closer at what’s in Burlington water.

What’s in Burlington water?

Here are the top 5 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

1. Arsenic – Potential effect: Cancer
2. Chloroform – Potential effect: Cancer
3. Hexavalent Chromium – Potential effect: Cancer
4. Haloacetic acids (HAA5) – Potential effect: Cancer
5. Total trihalomethanes – Potential effect: Cancer

These are five of the 30 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

12 of these contaminants are rated as exceeding EWG Health Guidelines.

Does Burlington have Lead contamination?

No, Burlington, North Carolina does not currently have lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected from 2017 through 2019 showed concentrations of 0.0 parts per billion.

The legal limit for lead is 15 parts per billion. Being well-below this level is a good thing.

Concentrations between 3.8 ppb and 15 ppb put a formula-fed baby at risk of elevated blood lead levels. Read more about the symptoms of Lead in water.

There is no safe level of lead for humans.

The good news is that 99.99% of the lead can be filtered out.

See the What Can You Do? section below to learn how to filter out contaminants.

Where does Burlington’s water come from?

Burlington’s water comes from the Bowden Branch watershed.

Both water sources in the Bowden Branch watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Little Alamance Creek (Gant Lake, Mays Lake)
• Little Alamance Creek (Coble Branch)

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition.

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

See below for what you can do to improve Burlington’s water.

What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Burlington can be surprising.

But there are things you can do in your home to clean up your water.

To Remove Lead and Other Contaminants In Your Home:

There is one solution that beats Brita, PUR, and expensive whole house systems.

• It costs less per gallon.
• Needs fewer filter changes.
• And it doesn’t make your water taste weird.

• Use Berkey filters with activated carbon to filter out at least 88.9% in your drinking water.
  • Berkey filters can also remove up to 99.99% of Lead in Burlington water.
    • They will also filter the many of the PFAS family of forever chemicals: PFBA, PFDA, PFHPA, PFHXS, PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFPeA, PFPeS.
  • Brita can filter 21 of the 30 contaminants and Lead depending on the filter.
    • Brita will also filter the many of the PFAS family of forever chemicals: PFBA, PFDA, PFHPA, PFHXS, PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFPeA, PFPeS.
    • Regular Brita filters will not remove Arsenic or Cyanide.
  • Note: We may receive a commission if you decide to purchase filters through links on this page.
• To filter out 27 of the 30 contaminants in your whole house, consider a Reverse Osmosis water filtration system for your home.
  • These are typically more expensive than pitchers to purchase, but are much more effective.
  • They have the benefit of filtering out heavy hitters like:
    • Arsenic
    • Chloroform
    • Chromium (hexavalent)
    • Cyanide
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA5)
    • PFBA
    • PFDA
    • PFHPA
    • PFHXS
    • PFOA
    • PFOS
    • PFNA
    • PFPeA
    • PFPeS
    • Strontium
    • Total trihalomethanes

In Your Community:

Contact your local government officials and put pressure on them to invest in cleaner waterways and upgraded city water filtration and treatment.

Go to: https://www.burlingtonnc.gov/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other North Carolina Cities

North Carolina Water Quality Page