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County water report

Lexington County Water Report

Drinking-water compliance, watershed health, monitoring records, and river conditions for Lexington County, South Carolina.

Water grade

C

Water score

53.8

State rank

#35

of 46

Health violations

20

EPA SDWIS, 5-year lookback

Watershed impaired

0.0%

4 water bodies assessed

Monitoring sites

54

9,166 recent measurements

Live streamflow

28%

CONGAREE RIVER AT COLUMBIA, SC

Water at a glance

Key Water Indicators for Lexington County

EPA SDWIS

Safety Grade

C

Score: 53.8 / 100

EPA SDWIS

Active Violations

20

5-year health-based lookback

EPA ATTAINS

Watershed Health

0% impaired

4 bodies assessed

USGS NWIS

Streamflow Snapshot

28% of mean

CONGAREE RIVER AT COLUMBIA, SC

EPA WQP

Monitoring Sites

54

9,166 recent readings

Source: EPA SDWIS · Safe Drinking Water Information System

Drinking Water Compliance

Compliance grade

C

Based on EPA SDWIS compliance history.

Water score

Higher scores indicate cleaner recent compliance records.

53.8/100

Health violations

20

Health-based violations

Violations per 100K served

11.5

Population-normalized SDWIS rate

Editorial analysis

Understanding Lexington County’s Water

Drinking Water Quality Overview

EPA SDWIS

Lexington County's drinking water earned a C grade, scoring 53.8 out of 100. Over the past five years, EPA SDWIS records 20 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 4 water bodies) across Lexington 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 2026-05-14T15:00:00.000-04:00) puts CONGAREE RIVER at 2.4k cfs — well below its long-term average at 28% 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. Lexington County has extensive coverage with 54 active monitoring sites with 9,166 recent measurements on record. Predominant monitoring categories include physical 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 Lexington County

Water Verdict

Lexington County receives a below-average water quality assessment with a grade of C and a score of 53.8 out of 100. Residents should review their utility's Consumer Confidence Report and may want to consider additional water filtration for drinking.

Violation Context

Lexington County has recorded 20 health-based violations, indicating multiple instances where federal contaminant limits or treatment requirements were not met. At 11.5 violations per 100,000 people served, this rate is high and signals significant water quality management issues.

Consumer Guidance

Tap water in Lexington County meets baseline standards but the compliance record shows room for improvement, with a Grade C rating. Lexington County's drinking-water compliance score is 53.8 out of 100. The violation rate for Lexington County is 11.5 per 100,000 people served. Residents who are immunocompromised, pregnant, or have young children may benefit from using an NSF 53-certified filter. Contacting your local utility for the current Consumer Confidence Report will confirm which specific violations were recorded and whether they have been resolved. With 54 active water-quality monitoring sites in Lexington County, data coverage is strong. A pipeline streamflow snapshot from the CONGAREE RIVER gauge is also available on this page.

Regional Context

Lexington County has poorer water quality than the average county in South Carolina. Its water score is 11.1 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 Lexington County's water environment

Official EPA Resources for Lexington County

EPA How's My Waterway

Interactive watershed health data for Lexington County

EPA ECHO: Drinking Water Systems

Search water utilities and violation records for Lexington County

Consumer Confidence Reports (SC)

Annual water quality reports from utilities in South Carolina

Clean Water Act §303(d)

Watershed Health

Impaired Water Bodies

0.0%

0 of 4 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

54

Active in the past 5 years

Measurements Recorded

9.2K

9,166 total readings

Most Measured

  • Physical
  • Nutrient
  • Inorganics, Minor, Metals

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

2,400cfs

May 14, 7:00 PM UTC

vs Long-Term Average

28%

Well below typical

Primary Streamgage

CONGAREE RIVER AT COLUMBIA, SC

USGS site
02169500
Drainage area
7,850 sq mi
Long-term mean
8,591 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

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3 people  ·  ~225 gal/day

Annual Total

$558

Monthly

$47

Water Bill

$558/yr

Filter Cost

$0/yr

Safety Grade for Lexington 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 Lexington County, South Carolina?
Lexington County, South Carolina has a drinking-water quality grade of C with a score of 53.8/100, based on EPA SDWIS compliance data. The county has 20 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 Lexington County?
Lexington County has 20 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 Lexington County?
EPA ATTAINS assessments under Clean Water Act §303(d) indicate 0.0% of Lexington County's 4 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 Lexington County?
EPA's Water Quality Portal records 9,166 measurements from 54 monitoring sites in Lexington County over the past five years. The most frequently measured characteristic groups are Physical, Nutrient, Inorganics, Minor, Metals. 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 Lexington County right now?
Lexington County's primary USGS streamgage on the CONGAREE RIVER has a pipeline snapshot of 2,400 cubic feet per second — 28% of the long-term mean of 8,590.76 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 Lexington County water compare to the South Carolina average?
Lexington County's SDWIS water quality score of 53.8/100 is lower than the South Carolina state average of 64.9. The average water quality grade across South Carolina is C, based on data from 46 counties with available SDWIS data.
Is tap water safe to drink in Lexington County?
Based on EPA SDWIS data, Lexington County has a water quality grade of C (53.8/100). This indicates moderate compliance. Some violations have been recorded but overall standards are maintained. 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 Lexington County have so many water violations?
Lexington County has 20 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 Lexington County rank for water quality in South Carolina?
Lexington County ranks #35 out of 46 counties in South Carolina by SDWIS water quality score (1 = best). With a score of 53.8/100, 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

Georgetown County

South Carolina

C

52.7

Water score

Fairfield County

South Carolina

C

56.0

Water score

Berkeley County

South Carolina

C

51.4

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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