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Meadow Lake S/D

What EPA’s and CDC’s records show in this utility’s water: PFAS and lithium; nitrate, arsenic and other regulated chemicals; lead and copper; and violations since 2016, with the certification that handles each result.

Serves
42 people
Connections
17
Water source
Groundwater
Based in
Apex, NC
County
Wake
Owner
Private
The ZIP code it serves

27539

The short answer

1 result is above the health goal. The worst: Lead, above the health goal. No health-based violations on file since 2016.

What handles it

What was found

PFAS and lithium: EPA UCMR 5, samples taken from Feb. 11, 2025 to Aug. 12, 2025.

Lead and copper: EPA SDWIS monitoring periods ending 2016 to 2025.

Haloacetic acids (HAA5), arsenic, nitrate, total trihalomethanes (TTHM) and uranium: North Carolina’s yearly averages per water system, as CDC’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Network publishes them, 2021 to 2023, with EPA’s 2012 to 2019 file for earlier years.

Fluoride and chromium (total): EPA’s compliance monitoring file, samples taken from March 1, 2016 to Nov. 3, 2019. Newer results are in the utility’s annual water quality report.

PFAS: PFHxS was found, of the six PFAS in EPA’s 2024 drinking water rule; its result is below. None of the other 23 PFAS tested for was found.

EPA’s 2024 PFAS rule, compound by compound

PFASEPA’s limitResult
PFOA4.0 pptNot foundNot found in any of 2 samples, below 4 ppt
PFOS4.0 pptNot foundNot found in any of 2 samples, below 4 ppt
PFHxS10 pptBelow EPA’s limits3.5 ppt highest, found in 1 of 2 samples. Details
PFNA10 pptNot foundNot found in any of 2 samples, below 4 ppt
HFPO-DA (GenX)10 pptNot foundNot found in any of 2 samples, below 5 ppt
PFBSIndex onlyNot foundNot found in any of 2 samples, below 3 ppt
Hazard IndexPFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA and PFBS together1Doesn’t applyDoesn’t apply: no sampling location found two or more of the four
Results from EPA’s UCMR 5 sampling. “Below” is the lab’s reporting level: a result under it reads as not found, which is not the same as zero. The limits are EPA’s 2024 rule, with compliance due from 2029; EPA has since proposed changes to some of them, explained on each compound’s page. PFBS has no limit of its own and counts only toward the Hazard Index, which adds up the four, each against EPA’s health-based level, from each sampling location’s average, as EPA’s UCMR 5 summary does. It counts only where two or more of the four were found, and is above the limit from 1.5.

About PFAS certifications

NSF’s PFAS claims are tested to below 20 ppt. EPA’s limit is 10 ppt, and EPA says no certification yet shows a filter reaching its levels.

Above the health goal1

Lead

Comes from pipes, often your own

Above the health goal

0.53ppb

90th percentile, 2023 to 2025

In the latest period, 9 in 10 homes sampled were at or below 0.53 ppb, below EPA’s action level of 15 ppb. The action level drops to 10 ppb on Nov. 1, 2027. EPA’s health goal for lead is zero.

What handles it

Below EPA’s limits4

Lithium

Comes from the source

At EPA’s benchmark, as EPA rounds

11.3ppb

Highest sample, Aug. 12, 2025; found in 2 of 2

The highest sample was 11.3 ppb. As EPA rounds results, that is at EPA’s health reference level of 10 ppb, not above it: EPA counts a result as above it from 15 ppb.

What handles it

No certification claim covers this compound yet.

PFHxS

Comes from the source

Below EPA’s limits

3.5ppt

Highest sample, Aug. 12, 2025; found in 1 of 2

The highest sample was 3.5 ppt, below EPA’s new limit of 10 ppt, which takes effect in 2029.

What handles it

Fluoride

Forms or is added in treatment

Below EPA’s limits

0.26ppm

Highest yearly average, 2016 to 2019

2019, one sample: 0.2 ppm

Averaged by year, the highest was 0.26 ppm, in 2016, below EPA’s legal limit of 4.0 ppm. In 2019, the latest year on file, its one sample was 0.2 ppm.

What handles it

Haloacetic acids (HAA5)

Forms or is added in treatment

Below EPA’s limits

1.5ppb

Highest yearly average, 2022

Averaged by year, the highest was 1.5 ppb, in 2022, below EPA’s legal limit of 60 ppb. That is the only year on file. Earlier, from 2012 to 2019, EPA’s file shows a highest yearly average of 3.1 ppb, in 2019.

What handles it

No certification claim covers this compound yet.

North Carolina utilities above EPA’s PFAS limits
33 compounds tested and not foundBelow the reporting level in every sample. Not found is not the same as zero.

From routine monitoring

  • Arsenic
  • Chromium (total)
  • Nitrate
  • Total trihalomethanes (TTHM)
  • Uranium

PFAS and lithium, from EPA’s UCMR 5 sampling

  • 11Cl-PF3OUdS
  • 4:2 FTS
  • 6:2 FTS
  • 8:2 FTS
  • 9Cl-PF3ONS
  • ADONA
  • HFPO-DA (GenX)
  • NEtFOSAA
  • NFDHA
  • NMeFOSAA
  • PFBA
  • PFBS
  • PFDA
  • PFDoA
  • PFEESA
  • PFHpA
  • PFHpS
  • PFHxA
  • PFMBA
  • PFMPA
  • PFNA
  • PFOA
  • PFOS
  • PFPeA
  • PFPeS
  • PFTA
  • PFTrDA
  • PFUnA

What handles it

A certification covers specific claims, not a whole standard. Look for these claims on the certifier’s listing, not the box. Wording varies a little: NSF writes “Lead Reduction,” WQA just “Lead.”

At the tap, or for the whole house?

Lead and copper usually come from pipes and fixtures inside or near your home. A whole-house system sits where water enters, so it cannot catch what your own plumbing adds after it. For those, the filter that counts is the one at the tap. How whole-house systems compare.

Filters with those claims on a certifier’s listing

Disclosure: TapBuff earns a commission if you buy through some links on this page. It does not change which standard or filter we name. As an Amazon Associate, TapBuff earns from qualifying purchases. How TapBuff makes money

Compare five-year costs

The best water filters for lead, ranked

Disinfectant

Meadow Lake S/D reported adding chloramine before water enters its pipes, at its one sampling point, in its 2025 sampling for EPA.

Chloramine is chlorine combined with ammonia. It lasts longer in the pipes, and unlike chlorine, it doesn’t leave water that sits out. A filter’s chlorine claim doesn’t cover it: look for the separate chloramine claim under NSF/ANSI 42. No shower filter can carry one: NSF/ANSI 177, the shower filter standard, covers free chlorine only. Fish, turtles and frogs need it removed from their water. This is what the utility reported for that sampling. Its annual water quality report says what it uses now.

Chlorine vs. chloramineFilters with a chloramine claimShower filters, by what their listings cover

Violations since 2016

No health-based violations on file with EPA since 2016. There are 9 monitoring or reporting violations: a sample missed, late or not reported.

What this report can’t tell you

  • Everything else. Haloacetic acids (HAA5), arsenic, nitrate, total trihalomethanes (TTHM) and uranium results here are North Carolina’s yearly averages as CDC publishes them, from 2021 on, with EPA’s national file for 2012 to 2019. Fluoride and chromium (total) come from EPA’s file alone, which ends in 2019. Meadow Lake S/D’s own annual report, which it must send you every year, has newer results for those and the contaminants this page does not show.

  • Your own plumbing. Lead results are the 90th percentile across homes the utility samples. Your home’s service line, solder and fixtures decide yours. A certified lab test is the only way to know.

  • What it means for your health. This page reports what the records show and EPA’s limits and goals; it is not medical advice. If you are worried about a health effect, talk to a doctor or your local health department.

  • Anything after the latest data. SDWIS data is from 2026 Q3; UCMR 5 samples are from Feb. 11, 2025 to Aug. 12, 2025; CDC’s yearly averages for North Carolina cover 2021 to 2023; EPA’s compliance samples are from March 1, 2016 to Nov. 3, 2019.

Testing your own tap

Meadow Lake S/D’s results are for the water it sends out. What your own service line, solder and fixtures add shows up only in a test of your tap, by a lab North Carolina certifies.

The 3 labs North Carolina certifies closest to the area Meadow Lake S/D serves, in a straight line. Call first: certification is test by test, and not every lab takes samples from homeowners.

  • Eurofins Built Env. Testing East - Cary

    Cary, NC · about 6 miles

    Certified for asbestos

    (919) 481-1413

  • Eurofins Raleigh

    Cary, NC · about 6 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, minerals and other inorganics

    (919) 467-3090

  • NC State Lab of Public Health

    Raleigh, NC · about 11 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, lead and copper, metals, minerals and other inorganics, organic chemicals, disinfection byproducts, radioactivity

    (919) 733-7308

All 112 certified labs for North Carolina

Sources

PWSID NC0392159. Rebuilt from EPA data on Oct. 18, 2026.

Also in Wake County

All North Carolina utilities

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