Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Utilities operates three water treatment facilities drawing water from both the Yadkin River and Salem Lake. Together, these water treatment facilities can produce up to 91 million gallons of drinking water per day. The Neilson and Swann Water Treatment Plants can treat 48 and 25 million gallons per day, respectively, from the Yadkin River. The Thomas Water Treatment Plant can treat 18 million gallons per day from Salem Lake and the Yadkin River.
Treatment Processes Reported by US Public Water Systems (2004-2020)
This repository holds records on treatment processes and objectives reported by United States (US) public water systems from 2004-2020. These data were obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request made to the US Environmental Protection Agency in June 2020. Data were reported quarterly. Please refer to the associated publication (Liddie et al., 2026) for additional details on these data. Please cite both this repository and the publication if you use or refer to these data.
2025 Water Quality Report: Statesville Water Quality Report Released – All State & Federal Standards Met
The City of Statesville has released its 2025 Water Quality Report, confirming that the City’s drinking water meets or exceeds all health standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR).
Replication Data for: Characteristics of 'Early Adopters' of Water Treatment Capacity Needed to Remove PFAS and other Emerging Contaminants in the United States
This repository holds replication datasets for the study titled, "Characteristics of 'Early Adopters' of Water Treatment Capacity Needed to Remove PFAS and other Emerging Contaminants in the United States." Additional information is available in the readme file for download.
US drinking water quality: exposure risk profiles for seven legacy and emerging contaminants
Advances in drinking water infrastructure and treatment throughout the 20th and early 21st century dramatically improved water reliability and quality in the United States (US) and other parts of the world. However, numerous chemical contaminants from a range of anthropogenic and natural sources continue to pose chronic health concerns, even in countries with established drinking water regulations, such as the US.
City of Statesville Moves to Stage 2 Water Restrictions
The City of Statesville is currently under Stage 3 (Extreme Drought) conditions. Beginning at 8 a.m. on May 4, 2026, the City will enforce water use restrictions with fines. This enforcement action is authorized under 15A NCAC 02E .0607, the City of Statesville Code of Ordinances, Section 23, Division 2 (Water Shortage Response Procedures), and the City of Statesville Water Shortage Response Plan (adopted June 5, 2023), following a drought advisory issued by the North Carolina Drought Management Advisory Council and the establishment of the City’s Water Shortage Leadership Team on April 22, 2026.
Amazon’s data centers used 2.5 billion gallons of water last year
Amazon’s using a lot of water, but claims it’s using it efficiently.
PFAS Statewide Sampling Dataset: PFAS drinking water sampling data from U.S. community water systems
This repository contains a sample of U.S. community water systems (CWS) included in the PFAS statewide sampling dataset. In the first versions of this dataset, 18 states were included as part of Liddie et al., 2023. The statewide sampling dataset now includes compiled data from 28 U.S. statewide sampling campaigns of CWS for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water. The full dataset of samples spans the 2016-2024 period. All data were either publicly available or provided by state agencies upon request. The full dataset contains approximately 98,000 samples from 11,138 CWS in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Concentrations of 5-40 targeted PFAS were analyzed by multiple labs contracted by the states using comparable methods, including either US EPA Method 537, 537.1, or 533. We assigned a conservative, uniform detection limit at the 98th percentile of all reports detection limits (5 ng/L) for the 5 PFAS that were measured in all states consistently. This dataset also incorporates data from the US EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Information System, including the source water type, county served, zip code, system city, and total population served. The 8-digit hydrological unit code in which a CWS intake is estimated to reside is also provided using data from the United States Geological Survey. This was done by geocoding each CWS using geographical data provided by state agencies, reported zip codes (when available), or based on additional information provided by each system (e.g., system name, city, city served). At this time, the full datasets (either system-level or sample-level) are available by request (see contact information below). Note that additional fields, such continuous concentration data, reported detection limits, concentrations of other PFAS analytes, are also available. Proper citation of both this repository and the original associated paper (see recommended citations below) are required for use of these data. Due to the significant time investment required to curate these data, additional data requests beyond the scope of the details listed here are welcomed but should be agreed upon (e.g., in terms of co-authorship) with the primary point of contact. Please contact Jahred Liddie (jliddie@g.harvard.edu) for questions/suggestions, access to additional variables, or access to the full sampling datasets.
Replication Data for: County-Level Associations between Drinking Water PFAS Contamination and COVID-19 Mortality in the United States
This repository holds two replication datasets for the study titled, "County-Level Associations between Drinking Water PFAS Contamination and COVID-19 Mortality in the United States." Additional information is available in the readme file for download.
Characteristics of ‘early adopters’ of water treatment capacity needed to remove PFAS and other emerging contaminants in the United States
Larger CWS were 7–8 times more likely than smaller systems to adopt advanced treatment processes over 2004–2022. , Past work shows exposures to drinking water contaminants can differ among regions with varying sociodemographic composition, in part due to disparities in siting of pollution sources. Drinking water treatment by reverse osmosis, ion exchange, or activated carbon has been recommended by United States (US) regulatory agencies for community water systems (CWS) with elevated concentrations of emerging chemical toxicants such as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). However, barriers faced by CWS in implementing such technologies are not well understood. Here we used a national scale ( n = 36 611 CWS) Kaplan–Meier “survival” analysis, as well as adjusted piecewise logistic regression models, to retrospectively examine characteristics of CWS that were “early adopters” of these treatment technologies between 2004–2022. Results showed the largest CWS serving >100 000 customers adopted the treatment technologies considered here 7–8 times faster than small and very small CWS serving <3300 customers from 2004–2022. Nationally and for a case study of CWS with elevated PFAS concentrations, the odds of CWS adopting the treatment technologies considered in this study between 2004–2022 were significantly lower (10–25%) for each 10% higher proportion of non-Hispanic Black residents. Results were generally consistent when focusing on CWS with prior MCL violations and in CWS across different US regions , system sizes, and source water types. The proportion of American Indian and Alaskan Native residents was also inversely associated with adoption of the treatment technologies for certain groups of CWS. These results suggest managerial and financial barriers to removal of high levels of emerging contaminants in drinking water may be most pronounced for some small CWS and those serving selected historically marginalized communities.
Field Validation of a Novel Passive Sampler for Dissolved PFAS in Surface Waters
Abstract Numerous per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are of growing concern worldwide due to their ubiquitous presence, bioaccumulation and adverse effects. Surface waters in the United States have displayed elevated concentrations of PFAS, but so far discrete water sampling has been the commonly applied sampling approach. In the present study we field-tested a novel integrative passive sampler, a microporous polyethylene tube, and derived sampling rates (Rs) for nine PFAS in surface waters. Three sampling campaigns were conducted, deploying polyethylene tube passive samplers in the effluent of two wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents and across Narragansett Bay (Rhode Island, USA) for 1 month each in 2017 and 2018. Passive samplers exhibited linear uptake of PFAS in the WWTP effluents over 16–29 days, with in situ Rs for nine PFAS ranging from 10 ml day−1 (perfluoropentanoic acid) to 29 ml day−1 (perfluorooctanesulfonic acid). Similar sampling rates of 19 ± 4.8 ml day−1 were observed in estuarine field deployments. Applying these Rs values in a different WWTP effluent predicted dissolved PFAS concentrations mostly within 50% of their observations in daily composite water samples, except for perfluorobutanoic acid (where predictions from passive samplers were 3 times greater than measured values), perfluorononanoic acid (1.9 times), perfluorodecanoic acid (1.7 times), and perfluoropentanesulfonic acid (0.1 times). These results highlight the potential use of passive samplers as measurement and assessment tools of PFAS in dynamic aquatic environments. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:2375–2385. © 2022 SETAC Abstract A novel integrative passive sampler was field-tested and sampling rates derived for nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in two wastewater treatment plant effluents and in Narragansett Bay surface waters.
A data center drained 30M gallons of water unnoticed — until residents complained about low water pressure
Residents in Fayetteville, Georgia, noticed low water pressure last year. The utility discovered two unaccounted-for water connections at one of the nation’s largest data center campuses.
A data center drained 30M gallons of water unnoticed — until residents complained about low water pressure
Residents in Fayetteville, Georgia, noticed low water pressure last year. The utility discovered two unaccounted-for water connections at one of the nation’s largest data center campuses.
Socioeconomic Disparities in Exposures to PFAS and Other Unregulated Industrial Drinking Water Contaminants in US Public Water Systems
A Century-Old Drought Offers Parallels to Today - North Carolina State Climate Office
As we remain mired in our worst statewide drought in more than 18 years, comparisons with historical droughts -- especially that memorable 2007-08 event -- have become common in recent weeks, including in our own assessment of the current drought and its impacts. We've generally labeled the 2007-08 drought as the worst in North Carolina's
SilentSpringInstitute/ej_ucmr3
Code associated with the UCMR3 paper entitled "Socioeconomic disparities in exposures to PFAS and other unregulated industrial drinking water contaminants in U.S. public water systems"
