Huntersville, North Carolina

What is the Water Quality in Huntersville, North Carolina?

[Updated: June 9, 2023]

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

Most of their 22 contaminants have cancer-causing attributes.

• Chloroform is at extremely high levels: 57x health guidelines.
• Haloacetic acids (HAA5) are at extremely high levels: 142x health guidelines.
• Haloacetic acids (HAA9) are at extremely high levels: 413x health guidelines.
  • HAA5 and HAA9 are byproducts of chlorine treatment, a common method of disinfecting water supplies.
• PFOA is at very high levels: 17x health guidelines.

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

What’s in Huntersville water?

Here are the top 6 chemical compounds in your water and what health issues they can potentially cause:

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

These are six of the 22 contaminants analyzed by the Environmental Working Group (ewg.org).

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

Does Huntersville have Lead contamination?

Yes, Huntersville has lead in its water. The most recent Lead samples collected in 2019 showed concentrations up to 16.0 parts per billion (ppb).

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 Huntersville’s water come from?

Huntersville’s water comes from the McDowell Creek watershed.

3 of the 5 assessed water sources in the McDowell Creek watershed are in Impaired or Unknown condition. These include:

• Multiple sections of McDowell Creek

Ideally, a water source would be rated in Good condition. Catawba River is in good condition (Mountain Island Lake below elevation 648′).

Learn more from How’s My Waterway

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

Conclusion – What Can You Do?

Information about water quality in Huntersville 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:

• Use Activated Carbon filters to remove most contaminants in your drinking water.
  • Faucet-mount filters work better than pitchers.
  • PUR and Brita are low-cost and effective.

• To filter out even more 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:
    • Bromoform
    • Chlorite – change in blood chemistry
    • Chloroform
    • Chromium (hexavalent)
    • Fluoride
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA5)
    • Haloacetic acids (HAA9)
    • PFOA
    • PFOS
    • PFPeA
    • Strontium
    • Thallium – high toxicity can result in hair loss.
    • Total trihalomethanes
  • Our recommendation: APEC Reverse Osmosis Systems

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.huntersville.org/ to find contact information for your local officials.

Water Quality in Other North Carolina Cities

North Carolina Water Quality Page