Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC water profile — supply sources, drought status, wastewater reuse, and the key water issues facing the city.
rockbridge s/d
groundwater (wells) · private · PWSID NC4092073
Below EPA's 15 ppb lead action level at last testing.
Source: EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) · 2026 Q1
Chapel Hill is a small but growing city and the 16th-largest in North Carolina, home to roughly 59,568 residents. Chapel Hill's drinking water comes largely from the same regional sources that serve North Carolina: rivers, reservoirs, and coastal aquifers.
As elsewhere in North Carolina, the central challenge is pfas contamination. The GenX/PFAS crisis on the Cape Fear River made North Carolina a national contamination case study.
North Carolina reuses an estimated 8% of its treated wastewater and maintains developing reuse programs; Chapel Hill tracks severe to extreme drought conditions on the U.S. Drought Monitor scale.
Explore the North Carolina profile for statewide context, or dig into the water issues shaping Chapel Hill below.
Wake County water quality
Source: EPA SDWIS · 2026 Q1
At a glance
- Population ~59,568 (16th-largest in North Carolina)
- Primary sources: rivers, reservoirs, and coastal aquifers
- Drought: severe to extreme conditions
- State reuse rate: ~8% of wastewater
Statewide drought history
% of North Carolina in severe+ drought (Extreme (D3) now).
Source: U.S. Drought Monitor
Common questions
Is tap water safe in Chapel Hill?
Chapel Hill's largest water system, ROCKBRIDGE S/D, serves about 1,042 people. EPA records show 7 health-based violation(s) since 2016 and a most-recent 90th-percentile lead level of 3 ppb (EPA action level is 15 ppb). Always check your own provider's annual Consumer Confidence Report.
Where does Chapel Hill get its water?
ROCKBRIDGE S/D draws primarily from groundwater (wells), part of North Carolina's supply from rivers, reservoirs, coastal aquifers.
Related water issues
PFAS Contamination
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances persist in water supplies for decades. New federal limits are forcing utilities nationwide to invest in advanced treatment.
ExploreSaltwater Intrusion
As coastal aquifers are over-pumped and seas rise, saltwater pushes inland and contaminates freshwater supplies for cities from Florida to California.
ExploreAging Infrastructure
Much of America's water infrastructure is decades past its design life, leaking trillions of gallons a year and demanding hundreds of billions in reinvestment.
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