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County water report

Harlan County Water Report

Drinking-water compliance, watershed health, monitoring records, and river conditions for Harlan County, Kentucky.

Water grade

F

Water score

39.5

State rank

#91

of 118

Health violations

9

EPA SDWIS, 5-year lookback

Watershed impaired

0.0%

2 water bodies assessed

Monitoring sites

8

1,587 recent measurements

Live streamflow

33%

CUMBERLAND RIVER NEAR HARLAN, KY

Water at a glance

Key Water Indicators for Harlan County

EPA SDWIS

Safety Grade

F

Score: 39.5 / 100

EPA SDWIS

Active Violations

9

5-year health-based lookback

EPA ATTAINS

Watershed Health

0% impaired

2 bodies assessed

USGS NWIS

Streamflow Snapshot

33% of mean

CUMBERLAND RIVER NEAR HARLAN, KY

EPA WQP

Monitoring Sites

8

1,587 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.

39.5/100

Health violations

9

Health-based violations

Violations per 100K served

33.2

Population-normalized SDWIS rate

Editorial analysis

Understanding Harlan County’s Water

Drinking Water Quality Overview

EPA SDWIS

Harlan County's water systems carry a failing grade, scoring 39.5 out of 100. Over the past five years, EPA SDWIS records 9 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). None of the assessed waterways are listed as impaired (0 of 2 water bodies) across Harlan County's watersheds. 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 2026-05-14T14:30:00.000-04:00) puts CUMBERLAND RIVER at 239.0 cfs — well below its long-term average at 33% 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. Harlan County has limited coverage with 8 active monitoring sites with 1,587 recent measurements on record. Predominant monitoring categories include physical and inorganics, minor, metals. 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 Harlan County

Water Verdict

Harlan County receives a poor water quality assessment with a grade of F and a score of 39.5 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

Harlan County has recorded 9 health-based violations, indicating multiple instances where federal contaminant limits or treatment requirements were not met. At 33.2 violations per 100,000 people served, this rate is high and signals significant water quality management issues.

Consumer Guidance

Drinking-water compliance in Harlan County is rated Grade F, reflecting significant health-based violations in the recent reporting period. Harlan County's drinking-water compliance score is 39.5 out of 100. The violation rate for Harlan County is 33.2 per 100,000 people served. An NSF 53 or NSF 58-certified filter is recommended for drinking and cooking water. Check the Consumer Confidence Report from your utility to identify the specific contaminants and required corrective actions — utilities are legally required to notify customers of violations. There are 8 active water-quality monitoring sites in Harlan County. A pipeline streamflow snapshot from the CUMBERLAND RIVER gauge is also available on this page.

Regional Context

Harlan County has poorer water quality than the average county in Kentucky. Its water score is 24.7 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 Harlan County's water environment

Official EPA Resources for Harlan County

EPA How's My Waterway

Interactive watershed health data for Harlan County

EPA ECHO: Drinking Water Systems

Search water utilities and violation records for Harlan County

Consumer Confidence Reports (KY)

Annual water quality reports from utilities in Kentucky

Clean Water Act §303(d)

Watershed Health

Impaired Water Bodies

0.0%

0 of 2 assessed

Mostly healthy

Top Impairment Causes

No specific impairment causes reported for the assessed water bodies in this county.

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

8

Active in the past 5 years

Measurements Recorded

1.6K

1,587 total readings

Most Measured

  • Physical
  • Inorganics, Minor, Metals
  • Nutrient

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

239cfs

May 14, 6:30 PM UTC

vs Long-Term Average

33%

Well below typical

Primary Streamgage

CUMBERLAND RIVER NEAR HARLAN, KY

USGS site
03401000
Drainage area
374 sq mi
Long-term mean
722 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.

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 Harlan 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 Harlan County, Kentucky?
Harlan County, Kentucky has a drinking-water quality grade of F with a score of 39.5/100, based on EPA SDWIS compliance data. The county has 9 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 Harlan County?
Harlan County has 9 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 Harlan County?
EPA ATTAINS assessments under Clean Water Act §303(d) indicate 0.0% of Harlan County's 2 assessed water bodies are classified as impaired (0 impaired). 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 Harlan County?
EPA's Water Quality Portal records 1,587 measurements from 8 monitoring sites in Harlan County over the past five years. The most frequently measured characteristic groups are Physical, Inorganics, Minor, Metals, Nutrient. 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 Harlan County right now?
Harlan County's primary USGS streamgage on the CUMBERLAND RIVER has a pipeline snapshot of 239 cubic feet per second — 33% of the long-term mean of 722.22 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 Harlan County water compare to the Kentucky average?
Harlan County's SDWIS water quality score of 39.5/100 is lower than the Kentucky state average of 64.2. The average water quality grade across Kentucky is C, based on data from 118 counties with available SDWIS data.
Is tap water safe to drink in Harlan County?
Based on EPA SDWIS data, Harlan County has a water quality grade of F (39.5/100). 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 Harlan County have so many water violations?
Harlan County has 9 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 Harlan County rank for water quality in Kentucky?
Harlan County ranks #91 out of 118 counties in Kentucky by SDWIS water quality score (1 = best). With a score of 39.5/100, it falls in the bottom 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

Harrison County

Kentucky

F

39.4

Water score

Anderson County

Kentucky

F

39.0

Water score

Greenup County

Kentucky

F

40.1

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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