Asheville’s Water Resources Department announced Monday that the first batch of lead tests for residential customers is back, and the results are favorable.

After announcing Nov. 14 that tests had found detectable levels of lead in seven local schools, the city has been inundated with requests for lead tests — more than 6,600 as of Dec. 9, according to Water Resources spokesperson Clay Chandler. Results for the first batch of tests, for 159 homes, just came back.

“Out of 159 samples taken from mid- to late-November, nine had detectable levels of lead on the first draw,” Chandler said at the Tropical Storm Helene briefing Monday, noting “first draw” means water has sat in the customer’s pipes for at least six hours. “Of those nine, only three were either at or exceeded the action level of .015 parts per million. Here is the most important part: After flushing for 30 seconds, out of 159 samples taken, zero had detectable levels of lead.”

The samples all came from private homes and were throughout the distribution system, Chandler said. Asheville serves 63,000 residential and commercial customers.

The results, Chandler said, were “very similar” to the city’s regular compliance testing done every three years, most recently conducted last summer.

“We are currently meeting our required 90th percentile target, meaning at least 90 percent of the first draw samples must have detectable levels of lead under the action limit of .015 parts per million,” Chandler said. 

The nine tests that had detectable levels on the first draw, measured in parts per million, were:

• 0.005 (under the EPA’s 0.015 action limit)
• 0.021 (over the action limit)
• 0.021 (over)
• 0.015 (matched the action limit)
• 0.004 (under)
• 0.004 (under)
• 0.008 (under)
• 0.003 (under)
• 0.004 (under)

Chandler said the city is working to increase testing capacity by contracting with additional North Carolina state-certified labs. Because of the high demand, the test results are taking four to six weeks to get back, instead of the typical two to three weeks, he noted.

The city will also coordinate with the Asheville Fire Department to establish pickup and drop-off sites for lead test kits, Chandler said, noting details have not been finalized.

The city is offering one free test kit per household for city of Asheville water customers. Chandler noted that some customers live just outside the city limits, and they are included in eligibility for the free water test.

“We are prioritizing sampling at our county and city schools that we’ve consistently tested in previous years,” Chandler said. “Obviously, schools serve vulnerable populations, in this case, children under six, and are easily accessed and or geographically distributed throughout our distribution system. This will allow us to ensure optimal corrosion control has been restored.”

The city previously announced that it had suspended its normal corrosion control treatment program for 19 days, from Oct. 11 to Oct. 30. At the time, the city was using a bypass line to deliver non-potable, highly chlorinated water to customers and could not add the lead mitigation chemicals to the water supply.

The city restored potable water Nov. 18 and maintains it is safe to drink, based on EPA guidance. Two independent experts in the fields of chemistry and municipal water questioned that assessment in a previous Asheville Watchdog article.

One of them, Abigail Cantor, a chemical engineer and president of Process Research Solutions, LLC, which consults on municipal water issues, said she still wants to see more testing in Asheville, although the early results are encouraging.

“It is a small sample and there are a lot of variables at play here, but it is also promising that flushing for such a short time was successful,” Cantor said. “Still, it’s good that individuals continue to take up the water utility’s offer to test the water and measure the risk in their individual buildings, if the buildings meet the criteria for potentially having lead in the plumbing system.”

Cantor also wants to see an efficient and routine program of water main flushing in the city.

“In Asheville, there has been some water main flushing, as well as higher water usage from property owners flushing their buildings,” said Cantor, who is based in Madison, Wisconsin, but has relatives in Asheville. “So, sufficient debris may have flushed out of the system.”

Corrosion control prevents lead, used in solder in pipes in homes and buildings built in 1988 or earlier, and sometimes in feeder lines into homes, from leaching into the water. No lead is present in city pipes or in the water in the city’s main water supply, North Fork Reservoir near Black Mountain.

City recommends 30 seconds of flushing in older homes

Chandler said the city recommends 30 seconds of flushing in older homes before using water for consumption. If you’ve been away or the water has stood for longer periods of time, you should do a longer flush, waiting until the temperature of the water coming out of the tap has changed, typically becoming cooler.

Regarding the reservoir, Chandler showed video Monday of a stream that feeds North Fork, depicting extensive damage to trees in the streambed. The entire stream is covered with downed trees, and the uprooting of so many trees will likely continue to contribute to murky conditions and high turbidity measurements at North Fork, Chandler said.

Measured in Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTUs), the murkiness at North Fork started out above 70 and has dropped to 11.9 as of Monday, Chandler said. Before Helene walloped the area Sept. 27, the lake’s natural turbidity typically stood around 1.0.

Chandler said turbidity in the 10-12 NTUs range may be the “new normal,” as so many trees are down throughout the 20,000-acre watershed. The damage appears to be from massive flooding or a landslide, or possibly a combination, he said.

“That is a tremendous amount of trees that came out of the ground, and when trees come out of the ground they produce a lot of sand and a lot of silt,” Chandler said.

The situation “really underscores the importance of the Corps of Engineers’ pre-treatment system that is being integrated and activated as we speak,” Chandler said.

“It also underscores the importance of sedimentation basins for our existing filters that would allow us to treat extremely turbid water,” Chandler said. “We are one weather event, like a blowing snow storm, or as we get into the spring and summer months, a super-intense thunderstorm with heavy winds, from the turbidity at North Fork and Bee Tree reaching a point where it puts our existing filtration and treatment processes out of commission.”

The city also operates Bee Tree Reservoir in Swannanoa, but it has been out of commission since the storm because of excessive turbidity. 

For now, Chandler said, the continuing turbidity highlights the importance of the $39 million Army Corps of Engineers-led project at North Fork to install a mobile filtration system that hooks into the city’s existing treatment system. The Corps awarded the contract to Ahtna/CDM Smith joint venture Nov. 8, and the system should be operational this week.

The city would like to keep the filtration system in place beyond six months, Chandler said. A  long-term plan for the city would include constructing sediment basins at North Fork and Bee Tree that would help filter high-turbidity water, but that project could run $100 million or more and would require City Council approval.

Chandler said no plan is in place to remove the debris from the North Fork watershed yet.

“I have no idea how you go about, No. 1, removing the volume of that debris,” Chandler said. “And No. 2, keep in mind that’s National Forest — very, very thick forest — and so getting equipment up there would be an extreme challenge. I don’t know that we’ve sort of figured out the next steps for that yet.”

[Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include the test results for the nine instances in which lead was detected on the first draw.]

Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. John Boyle has been covering Asheville and surrounding communities since the 20th century. You can reach him at (828) 337-0941, or via email at jboyle@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s local reporting during this crisis is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.

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