Charlotte Water, NC
Lead reported as not detected
Latest 90th-percentile lead: reported as 0 (not detected) (monitoring period 2023-2025). The federal action level is 15 ppb today and drops to 10 ppb in Nov 2027; EPA's health goal is 0. The latest 90th-percentile result was reported as 0 (not detected at the lab's limit). That says the sampled homes were low, not that your home has no lead service line. Check your utility's service line inventory for your address.
Who runs the water here
Charlotte Water serves about 1,206,285 people through 337,614 service connections, which makes it a very large system under EPA's size classes. It is owned by a local government (city, town, county or district) and draws surface water, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. EPA system ID: NC0160010. Ask the utility on your bill for your address in their service line inventory.
Every lead result on file
Against the period ending 2022 (0 ppb) the latest result is about the same. The highest 90th-percentile result EPA holds for Charlotte Water is 0 ppb across 4 monitoring periods, none of them over 15 ppb.
| Period ending | 90th-percentile lead |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2022 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2019 | 0 (not detected) |
| 2016 | 0 (not detected) |
Against other North Carolina systems
Of the 1,925 North Carolina systems with a lead result, the median latest reading is 0 ppb; 5 are over 15 ppb right now and 75 have gone over at some point. Charlotte Water's reported as 0 (not detected) sits at the 79th percentile in North Carolina and the 40th nationally (higher means more lead). Systems reporting 0 tie at the bottom, so the rank mostly reflects size among them.
Nearby utilities
28 other systems share Mecklenburg County; 7 of them have a higher latest lead result than Charlotte Water. If you are unsure which one supplies your house, the name on your water bill decides it.
| System | People | Latest lead |
|---|---|---|
| Lamplighter South-Danby | 3,297 | 0 (not detected) |
| Bradfield Farms S/D | 3,015 | 0 (not detected) |
| Park South S/D | 1,930 | 0 (not detected) |
| Wildwood Green/Mcilwaine | 681 | 0 (not detected) |
| Stone Hollow S/D | 582 | 0 (not detected) |
| River Pointe Estates | 500 | 0 (not detected) |
| Parkway Crossing | 465 | 0 (not detected) |
| Larkhaven S/D | 416 | 0 (not detected) |
| Rocky Ridge S/D | 384 | 2.3 ppb |
| Eastwood Forest Mhp | 375 | 2 ppb |
Your move
Look up your address in Charlotte Water's service line inventory. If it says lead, galvanized or unknown, test your tap. If your own line is lead, replacing the private side runs about $1,200-$12,300 (EPA average about $4,700). Ask Charlotte Water whether it covers that cost before hiring anyone - many utilities now do.
These figures describe homes the utility sampled, not your tap. Only your service line record or a test of your own water answers the question for your house. What a 90th-percentile result does and does not tell you: how to read a lead result. Small systems behave differently: why small systems go over more often.