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Is Highlands, NC tap water safe?

12 utilities serve Highlands, by EPA’s records. Here is what EPA’s and CDC’s records show for each, against the legal limits and the stricter health goals.

Matched to your utility using EPA records.

The short answer

5 of the 12 utilities serving Highlands have a result above a legal limit or action level, or a health-based violation since 2016, in EPA’s and CDC’s records: Town of Highlands, Highlands Falls Country Club, Wildcat Cliffs Country Club and 2 more.

Town of Highlands, which serves the most people here, has 1 result above the legal limit and 1 result above the health goal. The worst: Haloacetic acids (HAA5) at 65.4 ppb, above the legal limit.

A town can be served by more than one utility, and some homes are on private wells. The name on your water bill tells you which is yours, and your ZIP code narrows it down. They are listed by how many people each serves in Highlands’s ZIP codes, from EPA’s estimates.

2 more utilities in Highlands

By EPA’s estimate, each serves fewer people in Highlands than those above.

  • Wildwood Mountain S/Dserves 81 people · lists Highlands among the places it serves · 2 health-based violations since 2016
  • Cowee Mountain S/Dserves 46 people · lists Highlands among the places it serves · no health-based violations since 2016

What handles it

Each of these is certified, on a certifier’s listing, for a result above a line in Town of Highlands’s water, which serves the most people here. Another utility’s report names what handles its own results.

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Every claim, and more filters, in the full report

Water testing near Highlands

A utility tests the water it sends out. A test of your own tap shows what your pipes add, and on a private well it is the only test there is. It takes a lab North Carolina certifies.

The 3 labs North Carolina certifies closest to Highlands, in a straight line. Call first: certification is test by test, and not every lab takes samples from homeowners.

  • EAS Testing Laboratory

    Franklin, NC · about 15 miles

    Certified for bacteria

    (828) 524-2353

  • Macon County Health Dept.

    Franklin, NC · about 15 miles

    Certified for bacteria

    (828) 349-2447

  • Environmental, Inc.-Sylva

    Sylva, NC · about 21 miles

    Certified for bacteria, nitrate, lead and copper, metals, minerals and other inorganics

    (828) 586-5588

All 112 certified labs for North Carolina

ZIP codes in Highlands

Which ZIP codes are in Highlands: Census 2020 relationship files. Which utilities serve them, and how many people: EPA SDWIS and EPA’s service area map. Each utility’s results: EPA UCMR 5, EPA SDWIS, and EPA’s and the state’s compliance monitoring, as its report lists them. How they are measured: methodology. Certified labs: North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health, certified drinking water laboratories; distances from the Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation area gazetteer.

Near Highlands

Towns nearby with a page of their own.

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