What's in Jefferson County, WV tap water?
Jefferson County sits about 50 miles from our Arlington base and is served primarily by Jefferson County (Bunker Hill area), which provides water to roughly 34,600 people. It draws from the Shenandoah Valley & Blue Ridge karst. The Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge run on limestone karst springs and municipal and private wells. That geology, plus valley agriculture, tends to raise nitrate and naturally occurring radionuclides, alongside chlorination byproducts wherever the supply is disinfected.
Find a local installerJefferson County (Bunker Hill area) water quality report, explained
What testing of Jefferson County (Bunker Hill area) water shows for Jefferson County, compared with EWG's health guidelines. Being above a guideline is not a legal violation.
Primary water system (EPA)
Jefferson County (Bunker Hill area)
Serves about 34,600 people
Contaminants EWG most often flags above its health guidelines for the Shenandoah Valley & Blue Ridge karst:
Larger areas have more than one water system. Enter your exact zip code below for your utility's own EPA record and EWG report.
Measured by the EPA · Jefferson County, WV
Jefferson County, WV tap water is fully legal.
It is also 35× the health standard for lead.
Jefferson County is served by Berkeley Co P S W D-Bunker Hill, a surface-water system supplying roughly 0 people. It treats its own water rather than buying it from a regional wholesaler, so what comes out of the tap is its work end to end.
Surface water needs heavy disinfection, and chlorine reacting with organic matter in the river is what creates trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. Those are the contaminants that most often sit above health guidelines here, and they form in the pipes after treatment rather than at the plant.
Every federal limit that applies here is met. Those limits weigh what removal costs. EWG says its health standards are “based only on protecting health and does not consider technical feasibility or the cost of water treatment”. Here is how far apart the two are.
Harm to the brain and nervous system · EPA limit 10 ppb (action level, lowered from 15 ppb, in force November 2027)
Harm to fetal growth and child development · no federal limit exists
Harm to fetal growth and child development · no federal limit exists
Harm to fetal growth and child development · no federal limit exists
Hormone disruption; harm to fetal growth and child development · no federal limit exists
The EPA's latest round found 4 PFAS compounds in this supply. Lead sampling put the ninetieth percentile at 6.9 ppb — meaning nine in ten homes tested below that, and one in ten above it. It carries 37 violations on file, none health-based — monitoring and reporting lapses rather than contamination.
Berkeley Co P S W D-Bunker Hill, on the EPA's record
- Source
- surface water
- Connections served
- 15,059
- Violations on file
- 37, none health-based
How this water is treated before it reaches you
Treatment makes water safe to distribute. It is not designed to remove PFAS, and chlorine-based disinfection creates byproducts of its own.
Levels: EPA Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR5, 2023–2025) for PFAS, and the Lead and Copper Rule 90th-percentile result for lead and copper — the highest reported for Berkeley Co P S W D-Bunker Hill. Health standards: EWG's published drinking water standards, updated February 2025. Levels vary by sampling point and date, and being above a health standard is not a legal violation.
13 contaminants above EWG's health guidelines
Everything EWG found above its guideline in Jefferson County's water, from testing in 2013-2023. A level can be under the legal limit and still be listed here: EWG's guidelines are set to protect health, not to be easy to meet.
| Contaminant | In this water | EWG guideline | Times over |
|---|---|---|---|
| Haloacetic acids (HAA9) | 27.0 ppb | 0.06 ppb | 450× |
| Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) | 40.7 ppb | 0.15 ppb | 271× |
| Haloacetic acids (HAA5) | 26.0 ppb | 0.1 ppb | 260× |
| Trichloroacetic acid | 14.9 ppb | 0.1 ppb | 149× |
| Bromodichloromethane | 6.17 ppb | 0.06 ppb | 103× |
| Chloroform | 34.0 ppb | 0.4 ppb | 85× |
| Dichloroacetic acid | 10.2 ppb | 0.2 ppb | 51× |
| Radium, combined (-226 and -228) | 0.51 pCi/L | 0.05 pCi/L | 10× |
| Nitrate and nitrite | 1.000 ppm | 0.14 ppm | 7.1× |
| Bromochloromethane | 0.402 ppb | 0.06 ppb | 6.7× |
| Nitrate | 0.654 ppm | 0.14 ppm | 4.7× |
| Dibromochloromethane | 0.390 ppb | 0.1 ppb | 3.9× |
| Chromium (hexavalent) | 0.0621 ppb | 0.02 ppb | 3.1× |
Source: EWG Tap Water Database, Charles Town Utilities (WV3301905).
The fix for Jefferson County water
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Common in U.S. tap water
Jefferson County water quality FAQ
Is Jefferson County, WV tap water safe to drink?
Public water in Jefferson County meets federal EPA legal limits. But "legal" is not the same as "clean": across the Shenandoah Valley & Blue Ridge karst, independent testing routinely finds contaminants like nitrates (agricultural runoff) and radium & radionuclides (naturally occurring) above EWG's stricter health guidelines. Enter your zip code above to see your exact utility's record.
What contaminants are common in Jefferson County water?
For the Shenandoah Valley & Blue Ridge karst, the contaminants that most often exceed health guidelines are nitrates (agricultural runoff), radium & radionuclides (naturally occurring), total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), arsenic (naturally occurring, trace) and PFAS (forever chemicals). Your specific levels depend on your utility, which you can look up by zip code above.
Does Sanavia install reverse osmosis systems in Jefferson County?
Yes. Jefferson County is roughly 50 miles from our Arlington base and inside our service area. A Sanavia Hydra reverse osmosis system installs under your sink and reduces every contaminant class above, and we'll mail you a free water test kit.
Where does Jefferson County tap water come from?
Jefferson County's primary public water system is Jefferson County (Bunker Hill area), which serves roughly 34,600 people. It sits in the Shenandoah Valley & Blue Ridge karst, so its water shares that region's contaminant profile. Larger areas may have more than one utility, so enter your exact zip code above for your own system's EPA record.
Is well water in Jefferson County tested for these contaminants?
No. Private wells are not covered by municipal testing, so the responsibility falls on the homeowner. If your Jefferson County home is on a well, nitrate and naturally occurring contaminants are worth testing for specifically, and a reverse osmosis system reduces them at the tap. We'll mail you a free water test kit either way.
Contaminants common in the Shenandoah Valley & Blue Ridge karst
Each of these is a plain-English guide to a contaminant class common in Jefferson County and the surrounding Shenandoah Valley & Blue Ridge karst — what it is, the health context, and what actually removes it.
Reverse osmosis in Jefferson County, WV
Jefferson County (Bunker Hill Area) treats this water to the federal standard, yet the contaminants listed above still exceed EWG’s stricter health guidelines — Nitrates (agricultural runoff), Radium & radionuclides (naturally occurring), Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and 2 more. Most of them either pass straight through treatment or form after the plant, in the pipes between it and the tap, which is why the fix has to be at the tap as well.
PFAS is the reason a carbon pitcher is not enough here. The compounds do not break down, they are measured in parts per trillion, and the federal limit that covers them is not enforceable until 2029. A reverse osmosis membrane is one of the few things at household scale that reduces them rather than passing them through.
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Full testing record for Jefferson County · Find a local installer
Detailed city water reports
For the largest DC-metro utilities we publish the full measured contaminant table.
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