Water in Virginia.
Northern Virginia draws Potomac River water shared with DC; coastal systems face saltwater intrusion. Military-base PFAS contamination (Naval Air Station Oceana, Joint Base Langley-Eustis) is documented.
How Virginia regulates drinking water.
Federal SDWA primacy. No state MCLs stricter than federal. Chesapeake Bay watershed-protection regime adds water-source-quality enforcement.
Virginia Department of Health — Office of Drinking Water
Virginia's water history, in order.
The contamination events, regulatory shifts, and major settlements that define how this state thinks about drinking water today.
- 2017
PFAS contamination identified at multiple Virginia military bases under federal site investigation.
- 2023
Virginia adopts statewide community-system PFAS sampling program.
The actual water you drink.
The physical rivers, aquifers, lakes, and reservoirs that feed Virginia's public water systems. Source quality is the foundation of tap quality — and where the long-term protection fights happen.
- riverPotomac River
Northern VA shared with DC.
- riverJames River
Richmond.
- riverRoanoke River
Southside VA.
- aquiferCoastal Plain Aquifer
Hampton Roads + Eastern Shore.
Source-water mix
~75% surface water, ~25% groundwater
Major cities served
Virginia Beach · Norfolk · Richmond · Arlington · Newport News
Who actually serves the water.
The largest public water systems in Virginia by population served. Click your ZIP after to see the full live EWG report for your specific utility.
- Fairfax WaterNorthern Virginia2,000Kserved
- Hampton Roads Sanitation District / Newport News WaterworksHampton Roads1,400Kserved
- Richmond Department of Public UtilitiesRichmond230Kserved
Where the contamination comes from.
Every state has a different industrial fingerprint. The industries below are the dominant historical and active contamination sources in Virginia's drinking water systems.
Naval Air Station Oceana and Joint Base Langley-Eustis are major PFAS sources. Dominion Energy coal-ash impoundments across central VA raise heavy-metal concerns. Limited heavy mining compared to West Virginia.
What state data flags most consistently.
Drawn from EPA SDWIS sampling records, EWG state summaries, and regional regulatory action over the past five years. Read the full deep dive on each.
Lead
A neurotoxic metal that leaches from old pipes and solder. No safe level for children.
PFAS (Forever Chemicals)
A class of ~15,000 synthetic chemicals that don't break down. Now regulated for the first time.
Trihalomethanes (TTHMs)
Byproducts of chlorinating water. Linked to bladder cancer at chronic exposure.
Chromium-6 (Hexavalent Chromium)
The Erin Brockovich chemical. A known carcinogen with no federal-specific limit yet.
Risk isn't evenly distributed.
Hampton Roads military-base communities face PFAS exposure. Coastal residents face saltwater intrusion. Pre-1986 Richmond housing faces lead.
~18% on private wells, predominantly rural western VA.
What's coming for Virginia's water.
Hampton Roads sea-level rise — among the most-vulnerable U.S. coastal cities. Chesapeake watershed algal blooms increase. Coal-ash impoundment integrity threatened by Appalachian flooding.
Voluntary statewide
Virginia Department of Health provides voluntary technical assistance.
Five questions for your next Consumer Confidence Report.
Your utility is required to send you a Consumer Confidence Report annually. Most are dense and procedural. These are the questions worth following up on for Virginia specifically.
- 1
If I'm in Hampton Roads, has my well been impacted by NAS Oceana or Langley-Eustis PFAS?
- 2
Has my Northern VA utility's Potomac River intake been impacted by DC combined sewer overflows?
- 3
Has my coastal well been impacted by saltwater intrusion?
Most state regulators allow public records requests for the underlying lab reports behind your CCR — your utility should be able to provide them on request.
For lead: NSF/ANSI 53. For PFAS in Hampton Roads: NSF/ANSI P473.
We don't recommend brands — the NSF/ANSI certification number matters more than the name on the box.
This is the state. Your address is the answer.
State-level patterns don't tell you about your specific tap. Run your ZIP for the live EWG contaminant report on your utility — or build a personalized Water File for your household.
Source-water mix, utility counts, lead-service-line estimates, and private-well shares are approximate, drawn from EPA SDWIS public data and state primacy-agency summaries. Contaminant rankings reflect EWG state-level monitoring data and regional regulatory action — they are not exhaustive. Timeline events are publicly documented. See methodology for the full sourcing. Search EPA SDWIS for Virginia