Rockingham County, North Carolina: drinking water report. Rockingham County – Reidsville and Eden – serves about 90,000 residents along the Virginia border.
Rockingham County – Reidsville and Eden – serves about 90,000 residents along the Virginia border. Water comes from the Dan River and local reservoirs. The 2014 Duke Energy coal ash spill in Eden – when a pipe beneath a coal ash pond burst and released 39,000 tons of ash into the Dan River – put the county at the center of North Carolina's coal ash crisis.
The 2014 Dan River spill contaminated 70 miles of river with coal ash containing arsenic, selenium, and other heavy metals. While emergency cleanup removed the bulk of the ash, sediment contamination persists. The drinking water intake downstream of the spill site required enhanced monitoring for years afterward.
UCMR5 data shows minimal PFAS detections. According to NC DEQ's 2024 data, county systems met federal standards. Duke Energy was required to excavate ash from the Eden site and other locations statewide.
Rockingham County's coal ash history makes continued monitoring important. Treatment has managed the contamination, but sediment impacts linger.
Check your water for current data. Reverse osmosis handles heavy metals and PFAS. Our water filter guide covers options. Pull your detailed report, and visit our North Carolina page for statewide data.
Drinking water is one exposure route. These federal datasets also cover Rockingham County, NC.
The EPA places Rockingham County, NC in Zone 1 - the EPA's highest-risk category, where the predicted average indoor radon level is above 4 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.
53% of homes in Rockingham County, NC were built before 1980, and 16% 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 Rockingham County, NC averages 7.8 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