Greensboro water report shows standards met, PFAS still detected
Greensboro met drinking-water standards in 2025, but PFAS still turned up in testing. The annual report shows compliance and contamination on the same page.
Greensboro released its 2025 drinking-water report June 18. The city met every state and federal standard while PFAS compounds still turned up in testing. The annual report covers water-quality samples collected from January 1 through December 31, 2025. City crews performed more than 400,000 tests during the year.
Main drinking-water sources remained Lakes Brandt, Higgins and Townsend in northern Guilford County, with additional purchased water coming from Burlington, Reidsville, the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority and Winston-Salem. The report identifies PFOS, PFHxS, PFOA and PFHxA among the forever chemicals detected in the monitoring data. The report identified no standard violation and did not suggest Greensboro water was unsafe.
Greensboro first discovered PFAS in its reservoirs and drinking water in 2014, then began weekly sampling in July 2018 for PFOA and PFOS at Lake Brandt and the Mitchell Water Treatment Plant entry point before shifting to bi-monthly testing in June 2020. After a yearlong pilot completed in 2022, the city selected granular activated carbon contactors for the Mitchell Water Treatment Plant and the Townsend Water Treatment Plant, with the goal of reducing PFOS and PFOA below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 4 parts per trillion limits. Those improvements are being built so the plants will be ready for future federal requirements.
The EPA finalized a national drinking-water standard in April 2024 for six PFAS compounds, including 4 ppt limits for PFOA and PFOS, 10 ppt limits for PFHxS, PFNA and GenX chemicals, and a hazard index for certain mixtures. Cutting PFAS requires both treatment at the tap and source-control work to reduce discharges into surface water and groundwater, because treating contaminated water alone is expensive.
Guilford County estimates close to 25 percent of residents rely on private wells, and county and state crews sampled 42 wells near Horsepen Creek and Brush Creek in 2018. Three of those wells showed PFOA and PFOS, but below the former 70 ppt health advisory then in effect. Residents were notified in January 2019, and more wells were sampled between December 2022 and January 2023.
Greensboro treats and delivers an average of about 35 million gallons of water a day.
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