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County water report

Faulkner County Water Report

Drinking-water compliance, watershed health, monitoring records, and river conditions for Faulkner County, Arkansas.

Water grade

D

Water score

44.3

State rank

#34

of 75

Health violations

30

EPA SDWIS, 5-year lookback

Watershed impaired

9.8%

389 water bodies assessed

Monitoring sites

20

10,344 recent measurements

Live streamflow

25%

Cadron Creek near Guy, AR

Water at a glance

Key Water Indicators for Faulkner County

EPA SDWIS

Safety Grade

D

Score: 44.3 / 100

EPA SDWIS

Active Violations

30

5-year health-based lookback

EPA ATTAINS

Watershed Health

10% impaired

389 bodies assessed

USGS NWIS

Streamflow Snapshot

25% of mean

Cadron Creek near Guy, AR

EPA WQP

Monitoring Sites

20

10,344 recent readings

Source: EPA SDWIS · Safe Drinking Water Information System

Drinking Water Compliance

Compliance grade

D

Based on EPA SDWIS compliance history.

Water score

Higher scores indicate cleaner recent compliance records.

44.3/100

Health violations

30

Health-based violations

Violations per 100K served

24.9

Population-normalized SDWIS rate

Editorial analysis

Understanding Faulkner County’s Water

Drinking Water Quality Overview

EPA SDWIS

Faulkner County's drinking water received a D grade, scoring 44.3 out of 100. Over the past five years, EPA SDWIS records 30 health-based violations — a pattern that public water utilities are required to disclose and correct.

Watershed Conditions

EPA ATTAINS

Under the Clean Water Act §303(d), EPA ATTAINS tracks whether waterways meet quality standards for drinking, recreation, and aquatic life (reporting cycle: 2022). A small share — 9.8% — of assessed waterways are impaired (38 of 389 water bodies) across Faulkner County's watersheds. The leading impairment causes are turbidity - base flows and ph. Impairment does not mean tap water is unsafe — it measures ambient waterway conditions upstream of treatment, not finished drinking water.

River & Streamflow Status

USGS NWIS

USGS NWIS gauge data (as of 2026-05-14T13:00:00.000-05:00) puts Cadron Creek at 66.8 cfs — well below its long-term average at 25% of mean — low-flow conditions worth noting for water-dependent ecosystems. Streamflow is a leading indicator of drought stress, sediment load, and dilution capacity: low flows concentrate pollutants and warm water temperatures, stressing aquatic life and, in surface-water-dependent systems, the source water quality for treatment plants.

Monitoring Network

EPA WQP

EPA's Water Quality Portal (WQP) aggregates monitoring data from federal, state, and tribal agencies. Faulkner County has moderate coverage with 20 active monitoring sites with 10,344 recent measurements on record. Predominant monitoring categories include inorganics, minor, metals and nutrient. More monitoring sites generally indicate greater scientific attention to local water conditions — and provide the baseline data that regulators use to set future impairment listings.

Editorial advisory

What the data suggests for Faulkner County

Water Verdict

Faulkner County, Arkansas receives a below-average water quality assessment with a grade of D and a score of 44.3 out of 100. Residents should review their utility's Consumer Confidence Report and may want to consider additional water filtration for drinking. Separately, EPA ATTAINS assessments cover 389 water bodies in the county's watershed, with 9.8% listed as impaired under the Clean Water Act — a source-water measure that is tracked independently of tap-water compliance. At the most recent USGS reading, local streamflow was below its historical mean at 24.5% — worth watching in drier seasons.

Violation Context

EPA SDWIS records for Faulkner County, Arkansas show 30 health-based violations, indicating multiple instances where federal contaminant limits or treatment requirements were not met. At 24.9 violations per 100,000 people served, this rate is high and signals significant water quality management issues. This compliance record sits alongside an unusually deep monitoring archive: 10,344 water-quality results have been logged across the county in the EPA Water Quality Portal over the past five years.

Consumer Guidance

Faulkner County's drinking-water compliance is below average with a Grade D, indicating repeated or unresolved violations in the recent record. Faulkner County's drinking-water compliance score is 44.3 out of 100. The violation rate for Faulkner County is 24.9 per 100,000 people served. Residents are encouraged to use an NSF 53 or NSF 58-certified filter for drinking and cooking water until the underlying violations are resolved. Running tap water for 30 seconds before use and avoiding older lead-pipe connections can also reduce exposure risk. The current Consumer Confidence Report from your utility will specify the contaminants of concern. Turbidity - Base Flows is the leading impairment cause in Faulkner County's watershed. With 20 active water-quality monitoring sites in Faulkner County, data coverage is strong. A pipeline streamflow snapshot from the Cadron Creek gauge is also available on this page.

Regional Context

Faulkner County has water quality close to the average county in Arkansas. Its water score is within 3.3 points of the state average, meaning its overall water system performance is broadly representative of Arkansas as a whole.

Advisory text summarizes county-level public records and is not a replacement for your utility's current Consumer Confidence Report or direct local notices.

Contaminants & Resources

Key issues flagged in Faulkner County's water environment

Watershed Impairment Causes (EPA ATTAINS)

  • 1

    High turbidity

    Impairment cause per EPA Clean Water Act §303(d) assessment

  • 2

    pH imbalance

    Impairment cause per EPA Clean Water Act §303(d) assessment

  • 3

    Dissolved Oxygen - Critical

    Impairment cause per EPA Clean Water Act §303(d) assessment

Source: EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycle 2022

Official EPA Resources for Faulkner County

EPA How's My Waterway

Interactive watershed health data for Faulkner County

EPA ECHO: Drinking Water Systems

Search water utilities and violation records for Faulkner County

Consumer Confidence Reports (AR)

Annual water quality reports from utilities in Arkansas

Clean Water Act §303(d)

Watershed Health

Impaired Water Bodies

9.8%

38 of 389 assessed

Mostly healthy

Top Impairment Causes

  • 1

    TURBIDITY - BASE FLOWS

  • 2

    PH

  • 3

    DISSOLVED OXYGEN - CRITICAL

Source: EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycle 2022

Impairment is determined under the Clean Water Act §303(d): a water body is impaired when it fails to meet state-defined quality standards for designated uses (drinking, recreation, aquatic life). Assessment coverage varies by state; counties without assessed water bodies are not shown.

Past 5 years

Water Quality Monitoring

Monitoring Sites

20

Active in the past 5 years

Measurements Recorded

10K

10,344 total readings

Most Measured

  • Inorganics, Minor, Metals
  • Nutrient
  • Physical

Categories measured most frequently

Data from the EPA Water Quality Portal (WQP), aggregating monitoring records from federal, state, and tribal sources. Each measurement represents a single sample analyzed for a specific characteristic (e.g., E. coli, pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrogen).

Live USGS Streamgage

River & Stream Conditions

Current Discharge

66.8cfs

May 14, 6:00 PM UTC

vs Long-Term Average

25%

Well below typical

Primary Streamgage

Cadron Creek near Guy, AR

USGS site
07261000
Drainage area
169 sq mi
Long-term mean
273 cfs

One representative streamgage (the one with the largest drainage area in the county). Many counties have multiple gauges; this view summarizes the primary one. The long-term mean is the full-record annual average; the percent-of-typical value compares the latest reading against that average.

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Water Cost Estimate

3

3 people  ·  ~225 gal/day

Annual Total

$558

Monthly

$47

Water Bill

$558/yr

Filter Cost

$0/yr

Safety Grade for Faulkner County:C — Moderate

Some violations or watershed impairment detected.

Estimates use the national average residential water rate ($0.0068/gal, EPA/AWWA 2023) and EPA WaterSense per-person consumption baseline (75 gal/person/day). Actual bills vary by utility, usage tier, and local infrastructure fees. For informational purposes only.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What is the water quality in Faulkner County, Arkansas?
Faulkner County, Arkansas has a drinking-water quality grade of D with a score of 44.3/100, based on EPA SDWIS compliance data. The county has 30 health-based drinking water violations over the past 5 years. Watershed health, monitoring records, and streamflow snapshots are reported separately on this page.
Are there any water violations in Faulkner County?
Faulkner County has 30 health-based drinking water violations recorded by the EPA over the past 5 years. Health-based violations indicate instances where contaminant levels exceeded EPA Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs). Violations may have been resolved — check with your local water utility for current status.
How healthy are the watersheds in Faulkner County?
EPA ATTAINS assessments under Clean Water Act §303(d) indicate 9.8% of Faulkner County's 389 assessed water bodies are classified as impaired (38 impaired). The top reported causes are TURBIDITY - BASE FLOWS, PH, DISSOLVED OXYGEN - CRITICAL. Impairment means the water body fails to meet state quality standards for at least one designated use — drinking water source, recreation, aquatic life, or fish consumption. Note: watershed impairment doesn't always translate to tap-water issues; treatment plants can remove most regulated contaminants.
How much water-quality monitoring happens in Faulkner County?
EPA's Water Quality Portal records 10,344 measurements from 20 monitoring sites in Faulkner County over the past five years. The most frequently measured characteristic groups are Inorganics, Minor, Metals, Nutrient, Physical. Each measurement is a single sample analyzed for one characteristic (E. coli, pH, dissolved oxygen, etc.). High monitoring density means more scientific evidence behind any reported signal — it does not by itself indicate water quality.
What's happening with rivers in Faulkner County right now?
Faulkner County's primary USGS streamgage on the Cadron Creek has a pipeline snapshot of 66.8 cubic feet per second — 25% of the long-term mean of 272.98 cfs. This is well below typical — often a signal of drought stress on source water. For the latest gauge feed, visit waterdata.usgs.gov.
How does Faulkner County water compare to the Arkansas average?
Faulkner County's SDWIS water quality score of 44.3/100 is lower than the Arkansas state average of 47.6. The average water quality grade across Arkansas is D, based on data from 75 counties with available SDWIS data.
Is tap water safe to drink in Faulkner County?
Based on EPA SDWIS data, Faulkner County has a water quality grade of D (44.3/100). This indicates below-average compliance with significant violations. Residents may want to consider home water filtration or independent testing. The grade speaks to the public water system, not the watershed — for watershed-level concerns, see the Watershed Health zone. For the most up-to-date information, contact your local water utility or review your Consumer Confidence Report (CCR).
Why does Faulkner County have so many water violations?
Faulkner County has 30 health-based drinking water violations on record from the EPA SDWIS database. A higher violation count can result from aging infrastructure, underfunded water utilities, agricultural runoff contamination, or industrial pollution. Counties with more water systems may also see more violations simply due to scale. Residents concerned about water quality should consider independent water testing and home filtration systems.
How does Faulkner County rank for water quality in Arkansas?
Faulkner County ranks #34 out of 75 counties in Arkansas by SDWIS water quality score (1 = best). With a score of 44.3/100, it falls in the middle third of counties statewide. The ranking reflects EPA SDWIS compliance only — not watershed impairment, monitoring density, or streamflow, which are tracked separately on this page.

Counties with Similar Water Quality

Lawrence County

Arkansas

D

46.1

Water score

Benton County

Arkansas

F

40.3

Water score

Crittenden County

Arkansas

F

40.2

Water score

Data Sources

Drinking-water compliance data from the EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS) via the ECHO enforcement database. Scores reflect compliance history and health-based violation counts.

Watershed health and impaired-waterway data from the EPA ATTAINS Clean Water Act §303(d) assessments, state-reported and EPA-finalized.

Water-quality monitoring counts from the EPA Water Quality Portal (WQP), federated USGS, EPA, and state agency sampling records over a rolling 5-year window.

Live streamflow from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS), continuous discharge measurements from the largest-drainage gauge in each county, compared against the full-record long-term annual mean.

Disclaimer: This data is informational only. It is not health, legal, or professional advice. For concerns about your specific water supply, contact your local water utility.

By Evan Brooks, Data EditorUpdated Reviewed by Evan Brooks, Data Editor

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