Surry County, North Carolina: drinking water report. Surry County – Mount Airy – serves about 72,000 residents in the northwestern Piedmont foothills.
Surry County – Mount Airy – serves about 72,000 residents in the northwestern Piedmont foothills. Water comes from the Ararat River and local wells. The county's rural character means smaller water systems with more limited treatment capacity.
Surry County's mountain-fed water sources provide clean baseline quality. UCMR5 data shows minimal PFAS detections. According to NC DEQ's 2024 data, county systems met federal standards. Small system compliance is the main regulatory concern – limited budgets and staffing can make ongoing monitoring and treatment maintenance challenging.
Surry County's water quality is generally good, benefiting from mountain source water.
Check your water for data in your area. A basic filter improves taste. 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 Surry County, NC.
The EPA places Surry County, NC in Zone 2 - a moderate-risk category, with a predicted average indoor radon level between 2 and 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.
51% of homes in Surry County, NC were built before 1980, and 15% 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 Surry County, NC averages 7.3 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