Beaufort County, South Carolina: drinking water report. Beaufort County – Hilton Head Island, Beaufort, and Bluffton – serves about 190,000 residents in
Beaufort County – Hilton Head Island, Beaufort, and Bluffton – serves about 190,000 residents in the southern South Carolina Lowcountry. Beaufort-Jasper Water and Sewer Authority draws from the Savannah River, while Hilton Head PSD uses groundwater from the Floridan Aquifer. MCAS Beaufort and the Parris Island Marine Corps Recruit Depot are major military installations in the county.
Beaufort County's military presence drives its PFAS picture. Both MCAS Beaufort and Parris Island have documented AFFF use, and PFAS has been detected in monitoring wells around both installations. According to the South Carolina DHEC's 2024 monitoring data, PFAS detections in the Beaufort-Jasper system were below proposed federal MCLs, as the Savannah River source is upstream of most contamination.
Hilton Head's groundwater system faces saltwater intrusion as the primary long-term threat. Pumping from the Floridan Aquifer on the island must be carefully managed to prevent saltwater from advancing into the freshwater zone.
Beaufort County's military PFAS sources and coastal saltwater dynamics make monitoring important.
Check your water for data in your area. Reverse osmosis addresses both PFAS and saltwater minerals. Our water filter guide covers options. Pull your detailed report, and visit our South Carolina page for statewide data.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Beaufort County, SC.
The EPA places Beaufort County, SC in Zone 3 - the EPA's lowest-risk category, with a predicted average indoor radon level below 2 pCi/L. Zone maps predict an area's radon potential from geology and existing indoor readings; they say nothing about a specific house. Testing is the only way to know your own level.
18% of homes in Beaufort County, SC were built before 1980, and 2% before 1950. Residential lead paint was banned in 1978, so housing age is the strongest available proxy for lead-paint exposure. This describes the county's housing stock, not any one home.
Modelled annual fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) in Beaufort County, SC averages 8.3 µg/m³, within the EPA's annual standard of 9 µg/m³. These are CDC modelled county estimates rather than readings from a specific monitor.
How radon zones work · Air quality by county · Lead exposure guide