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Federal water data

County water report

Kings County Water Report

Drinking-water compliance, watershed health, monitoring records, and river conditions for Kings County, California.

Water grade

F

Water score

35.5

State rank

#37

of 58

Health violations

67

EPA SDWIS, 5-year lookback

Watershed impaired

60.0%

10 water bodies assessed

Monitoring sites

10

1,994 recent measurements

Live streamflow

No gauge

CROSS C A KANSAS AVE NR HANFORD CA

Water at a glance

Key Water Indicators for Kings County

EPA SDWIS

Safety Grade

F

Score: 35.5 / 100

EPA SDWIS

Active Violations

67

5-year health-based lookback

EPA ATTAINS

Watershed Health

60% impaired

10 bodies assessed

USGS NWIS

Streamflow Snapshot

No gauge

CROSS C A KANSAS AVE NR HANFORD CA

EPA WQP

Monitoring Sites

10

1,994 recent readings

Source: EPA SDWIS · Safe Drinking Water Information System

Drinking Water Compliance

Compliance grade

F

Based on EPA SDWIS compliance history.

Water score

Higher scores indicate cleaner recent compliance records.

35.5/100

Health violations

67

Health-based violations

Violations per 100K served

44.7

Population-normalized SDWIS rate

Editorial analysis

Understanding Kings County’s Water

Drinking Water Quality Overview

EPA SDWIS

Kings County's water systems carry a failing grade, scoring 35.5 out of 100. Over the past five years, EPA SDWIS records 67 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 large majority — 60.0% — of assessed waterways are impaired (6 of 10 water bodies) across Kings County's watersheds. The leading impairment causes are toxicity and ph. Impairment does not mean tap water is unsafe — it measures ambient waterway conditions upstream of treatment, not finished drinking water.

Monitoring Network

EPA WQP

EPA's Water Quality Portal (WQP) aggregates monitoring data from federal, state, and tribal agencies. Kings County has moderate coverage with 10 active monitoring sites with 1,994 recent measurements on record. Predominant monitoring categories include organics, pesticide and organics, other. 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 Kings County

Water Verdict

Kings County receives a poor water quality assessment with a grade of F and a score of 35.5 out of 100. The water supply has documented quality issues. Residents are strongly encouraged to use filtered or bottled water for drinking and to stay informed about utility improvement plans.

Violation Context

Kings County has recorded 67 health-based violations, indicating multiple instances where federal contaminant limits or treatment requirements were not met. At 44.7 violations per 100,000 people served, this rate is high and signals significant water quality management issues.

Consumer Guidance

Kings County has a Grade F compliance record with 67 health-based violations — among the highest levels in the country. Kings County's drinking-water compliance score is 35.5 out of 100. The violation rate for Kings County is 44.7 per 100,000 people served. Residents are strongly advised to use a certified NSF 58 reverse-osmosis filter or bottled water for all drinking and cooking until violations are corrected. Contacting the California Department of Environmental Quality or Health can expedite utility compliance action. Toxicity is the leading impairment cause in Kings County's watershed. There are 10 active water-quality monitoring sites in Kings County. A pipeline streamflow snapshot from the CROSS C A KANSAS AVE gauge is also available on this page.

Regional Context

Kings County has poorer water quality than the average county in California. Its water score is 9.1 points lower than the state average, suggesting more challenges with contamination control or infrastructure than neighboring counties.

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 Kings County's water environment

Watershed Impairment Causes (EPA ATTAINS)

  • 1

    Toxicity

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

  • 2

    pH imbalance

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

  • 3

    Bifenthrin

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

Source: EPA ATTAINS · Reporting cycle 2022

Official EPA Resources for Kings County

EPA How's My Waterway

Interactive watershed health data for Kings County

EPA ECHO: Drinking Water Systems

Search water utilities and violation records for Kings County

Consumer Confidence Reports (CA)

Annual water quality reports from utilities in California

Clean Water Act §303(d)

Watershed Health

Impaired Water Bodies

60.0%

6 of 10 assessed

High concern

Top Impairment Causes

  • 1

    TOXICITY

  • 2

    PH

  • 3

    BIFENTHRIN

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

10

Active in the past 5 years

Measurements Recorded

2.0K

1,994 total readings

Most Measured

  • Organics, Pesticide
  • Organics, Other
  • 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

0.00cfs

May 14, 7:00 PM UTC

vs Long-Term Average

Long-term average not yet available.

Primary Streamgage

CROSS C A KANSAS AVE NR HANFORD CA

USGS site
11212260
Drainage area
0.9 sq mi

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.

Free tool

Estimate Your Water Costs

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 Kings County:F — Failing

High violation count or severe watershed conditions.

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 Kings County, California?
Kings County, California has a drinking-water quality grade of F with a score of 35.5/100, based on EPA SDWIS compliance data. The county has 67 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 Kings County?
Kings County has 67 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 Kings County?
EPA ATTAINS assessments under Clean Water Act §303(d) indicate 60.0% of Kings County's 10 assessed water bodies are classified as impaired (6 impaired). The top reported causes are TOXICITY, PH, BIFENTHRIN. 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 Kings County?
EPA's Water Quality Portal records 1,994 measurements from 10 monitoring sites in Kings County over the past five years. The most frequently measured characteristic groups are Organics, Pesticide, Organics, Other, 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 Kings County right now?
Kings County's primary USGS streamgage on the CROSS C A KANSAS AVE has a pipeline snapshot of 0 cubic feet per second. Flow is within typical range for this gauge. For the latest gauge feed, visit waterdata.usgs.gov.
How does Kings County water compare to the California average?
Kings County's SDWIS water quality score of 35.5/100 is lower than the California state average of 44.6. The average water quality grade across California is D, based on data from 58 counties with available SDWIS data.
Is tap water safe to drink in Kings County?
Based on EPA SDWIS data, Kings County has a water quality grade of F (35.5/100). 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 Kings County have so many water violations?
Kings County has 67 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 Kings County rank for water quality in California?
Kings County ranks #37 out of 58 counties in California by SDWIS water quality score (1 = best). With a score of 35.5/100, 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

Mendocino County

California

F

35.2

Water score

Amador County

California

F

34.8

Water score

Tuolumne County

California

F

34.0

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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