What's in King George County, VA tap water?
King George County sits about 42 miles from our Arlington base and is served primarily by King George Co. Courthouse, which provides water to roughly 3,990 people. It draws from the Potomac River watershed. Most of the DC metro area drinks treated Potomac River water. Because that surface water is heavily disinfected to stay safe across a long distribution system, the contaminants that most often exceed EWG's stricter health guidelines here are chlorination byproducts, alongside unregulated contaminants like PFAS and hexavalent chromium.
Find a local installerKing George Co. Courthouse water quality report, explained
What testing of King George Co. Courthouse water shows for King George County, compared with EWG's health guidelines. Being above a guideline is not a legal violation.
Primary water system (EPA)
King George Co. Courthouse
Serves about 3,990 people
Contaminants EWG most often flags above its health guidelines for the Potomac River watershed:
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 · King George County, VA
King George County, VA tap water is fully legal.
It is also 10× the health standard for lead.
King George County draws its water from the ground rather than from a river, through a small system serving about 3,985 people. Well water arrives with whatever the rock it sat in put into it, and small systems test less often than large ones.
Groundwater does not carry the chlorination byproducts that dominate river supplies, because it needs far less disinfection. What it carries instead comes out of the rock: arsenic, radium, manganese, and nitrate where there is farming above the aquifer. Boiling concentrates all of them rather than removing them.
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)
It was tested for 29 PFAS compounds in the EPA's latest round and none came back above reporting limits — genuinely good news, and a single window in time. Lead sampling put the ninetieth percentile at 2 ppb — meaning nine in ten homes tested below that, and one in ten above it. It carries 7 violations on file, none health-based — monitoring and reporting lapses rather than contamination.
King George Co. Courthouse, on the EPA's record
- Source
- groundwater
- Connections served
- 1,624
- People served
- 3,985
- Violations on file
- 7, 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 King George Co. Courthouse. 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.
5 contaminants above EWG's health guidelines
Everything EWG found above its guideline in King George County's water, from testing in 2018-2024. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) | 1.97 ppb | 0.15 ppb | 13× |
| Radium, combined (-226 and -228) | 0.42 pCi/L | 0.05 pCi/L | 8.4× |
| Bromodichloromethane | 0.308 ppb | 0.06 ppb | 5.1× |
| Haloacetic acids (HAA5) | 0.333 ppb | 0.1 ppb | 3.3× |
| Chloroform | 1.23 ppb | 0.4 ppb | 3.1× |
Source: EWG Tap Water Database, King George Co. Courthouse (VA6099050).
The fix for King George County water
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Reverse osmosis under your sink, for the contaminants EWG most often flags in the Potomac River watershed.
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Common in U.S. tap water
King George County water quality FAQ
Is King George County, VA tap water safe to drink?
Public water in King George County meets federal EPA legal limits. But "legal" is not the same as "clean": across the Potomac River watershed, independent testing routinely finds contaminants like total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and haloacetic acids (HAA5) above EWG's stricter health guidelines. Enter your zip code above to see your exact utility's record.
What contaminants are common in King George County water?
For the Potomac River watershed, the contaminants that most often exceed health guidelines are total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), haloacetic acids (HAA5), hexavalent chromium (chromium-6), PFAS (forever chemicals) and lead (from older service lines). Your specific levels depend on your utility, which you can look up by zip code above.
Does Sanavia install reverse osmosis systems in King George County?
Yes. King George County is roughly 42 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 King George County tap water come from?
King George County's primary public water system is King George Co. Courthouse, which serves roughly 3,990 people. It sits in the Potomac River watershed, 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 King George County tested for these contaminants?
No. Private wells are not covered by municipal testing, so the responsibility falls on the homeowner. If your King George 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 Potomac River watershed
Each of these is a plain-English guide to a contaminant class common in King George County and the surrounding Potomac River watershed — what it is, the health context, and what actually removes it.
Reverse osmosis in King George County, VA
King George Co. Courthouse treats this water to the federal standard, yet the contaminants listed above still exceed EWG’s stricter health guidelines — Total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), Haloacetic acids (HAA5), Hexavalent chromium (chromium-6) 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.
Lead is the one nothing upstream can fix. It does not arrive from the treatment plant; it comes off the service line and the household plumbing in between, which is why two houses on the same street test differently. A reverse osmosis membrane sits at the end of that run, after every pipe the water has already passed through.
Fit it yourself
$999, under the sink, with the included instructions.
We fit it for you
$1,250 installed in King George County.
Full testing record for King George County · Find a local installer
Further reading for King George County
Detailed city water reports
For the largest DC-metro utilities we publish the full measured contaminant table.
Nearby areas we serve
What's in your King George County tap?
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