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First round of lead tests for Asheville water customers comes back with encouraging results • Asheville Watchdog

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avlwatchdog.org – JOHN BOYLE – 2024-12-09 12:36:00

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.

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.

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.

 Water Resources Department spokesperson Clay 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. // Video provided by city of Asheville

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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‘Our Wave’ Co-founder on support spaces for sexual assault survivors

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www.youtube.com – ABC11 – 2025-04-26 10:24:54


SUMMARY: In recognition of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, North Carolina Governor Josh Stein announced a new sexual assault cold case unit to support survivors, with trauma-informed investigators dedicated to solving cases. Co-founder of Rwave, Brendan Michaelelsson, shared how their platform provides safe, anonymous spaces for survivors to share their stories and access resources. Since its launch in 2018, Rwave has helped survivors from 67 countries and all 50 U.S. states. Michaelelsson emphasized the importance of confidential platforms and suggested creating cultures of respect and safety in various environments. Rwave encourages volunteers and allies to get involved through their website.

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April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. ‘Our Wave’ Co-founder and CTO Brendan Michaelsen joined ABC11 to talk building support spaces for survivors and other resources.

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Juvenile offenders often denied parole in NC prisons even as adults

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carolinapublicpress.org – Lucas Thomae – 2025-04-26 00:00:00

A decade after a federal judge ordered North Carolina to adopt a plan to give juvenile offenders serving life sentences a “meaningful opportunity” for parole, a lawsuit making its way through the court system says the state has failed to follow through.

Earlier this month a judge denied the state’s motion to dismiss the suit, which was filed in 2023, noting “concerning” accounts of omitted and false information in plaintiff Brett Abrams’ parole file.

Abrams, 56, is serving a life sentence for murder at the minimum security prison in Hillsborough. He leaves prison five days a week to work a full-time job at a meat packing plant. In his 40 years of incarceration, he’s accrued 11 infractions, the last being in 2005.

On paper, he seems like a great candidate for parole. But the four-person commission that has sole discretion over parole decisions in North Carolina has denied him every time since he first became eligible in 1993.

Abrams has undergone two parole reviews since the state implemented its new process for juvenile offenders — colloquially known as the “Hayden Plan” for the case Hayden v. Keller that spurred its creation. 

However, he continues to be denied his freedom.

A brutal killing

In 1983, Abrams stabbed and killed his 20-year old neighbor at her parents’ home after she confronted him for secretly watching her sunbathe. Abrams was 14 at the time of the slaying, and at 15 he was charged as an adult and sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

Depositions from Abrams’ lawsuit revealed his parole file had omitted crucial information that might have helped with his release. It also contained inaccurate information, including that he had an open homicide case against him for the 1982 death of his brother. In reality, the Iredell County Sheriffs’ Office had ruled the death an accident and closed the case.

“We saw in his profile pretty significant, very material mistakes that included misleading information, lies, things that were simply not true which we believe are so significant that it’s a sort of evidence in itself that the system is broken,” Abrams’ attorney, Jake Sussman, told Carolina Public Press.

And despite Abrams seeking psychological counseling and treatment based on the recommendation of the Parole Commission in 2018, those records were not included in his 2020 review.

“One would assume accurate and comprehensive summaries with relevant information would be essential where commissioners vote on more than 100 cases a day,” Judge Richard Myers wrote in his April 2 ruling.

The court cannot reverse the decisions made by the state’s Parole Commission, meaning the legality of Abrams’ continued incarceration is not being questioned. But Myers determined it is “within this court’s purview to review for Eighth Amendment violations,” as proven in Hayden v. Keller.

“What we’ve asked the judge to do is to find that the current system is unconstitutional as it applies to Mr. Abrams, and therefore as it would apply to all of the juvenile offenders, and develop a plan to actually have a review process that works,” Sussman said.

Juvenile offenders at mercy of the system

Decades of judicial rulings have given states plenty of discretion over how to handle the parole process.

North Carolina’s system has changed several times, and starting in 1994 the state eliminated parole altogether in favor of a different system called “structured sentencing,” which sets a minimum sentence and allows the Parole Commission to set the terms of release for felons once they reach that mark.

Those imprisoned prior to 1994 are still subject to the state’s older system, which Sussman described as a “constitutional mess,” particularly for juvenile offenders.

Two U.S. Supreme Court decisions from the 2010s — Graham v. Florida and Miller v. Alabama — resulted in monumental changes for people serving life sentences due to crimes they committed as juveniles. In those rulings, the Supreme Court severely limited states’ abilities to administer life sentences without parole to juvenile offenders, deciding that such actions constituted “cruel and unusual punishment” under the Eighth Amendment.

The logic behind that ruling is that juvenile offenders are more likely to respond to rehabilitation and reform compared to people imprisoned for crimes they committed later in life.

“Research in the area of brain development shows that the brain is not fully developed until about age 25,” explained Erin Fitzgerald, a professor at Elon University who specializes in juvenile justice. “This lack of development makes juveniles more impulsive, susceptible to peer pressure and unable to fully appreciate the consequences of their actions. However, it also makes them more malleable and capable of rehabilitation.”

Justice for juvenile offenders

The Hayden Plan at the center of Abrams’ lawsuit was born out of the precedent set by the Graham and Miller cases.

In 2010, a North Carolina inmate serving a life sentence for sexual assaults he committed as a teenager in the 1980s sued the Parole Commission for not giving him a fair chance to make his case for release.

His name was Shaun Hayden.

Every year after becoming eligible for parole, Hayden would receive the same letter from the commission saying that he had been denied parole, despite never having interacted with them in any way or being notified that he was up for review.

“He didn’t think that was fair, and he was correct,” said Ben Finholt, who was one of Hayden’s attorneys in his lawsuit against the commission. “It was a sham parole system where (the commission) never talked to anyone. They just review documents every year, and if not much changes, then you just get denied every year without them ever talking to you.”

A District Court ruled in Hayden’s favor, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Graham v. Florida. The state lost its appeal and in 2018 was directed to implement a new plan for handling parole review for juvenile offenders.

That plan guaranteed juvenile offenders a 30-minute video conference with one of the commissioners, a specialized case analyst and, in the case of denial, a letter detailing why the inmate was denied parole and recommendations for future reviews.

New parole plan, old issues

The new plan hasn’t exactly led to substantive changes, however.

Finholt, who now serves as Abrams’ attorney for his parole review (separate from the lawsuit that Sussman is handling), has had a firsthand account of the Hayden Plan’s shortcomings.

“The parole case analyst in Brett’s case admitted under oath that she did not consider the advocacy letter that I wrote for Brett in 2020, that it was not part of the record and that she had made no changes to her process based on the fact that the person being considered for parole was a juvenile,” he said. “That is explicitly contrary to (the Hayden court’s) holding that people who were kids at the time of the crime are entitled constitutionally to a different process.”

That was one of the reasons Myers, the judge in Abrams’ lawsuit, denied the state’s motion to dismiss the suit.

However, Myers also wrote that it is “still unclear” based on the facts of the case whether the commissioners would have changed their decision on Abrams if the information in his file had been completely accurate.

He declined to rule in favor of either party and ordered more discovery on the matter. When that is completed in June, he may issue a final ruling or set a trial date.

Sussman said that if Abrams wins this lawsuit, he would advocate for a decision-making process that is less arbitrary, such as a rubric or points-based system.

Finholt has also advocated for such a change, and he said it makes sense regardless of people’s opinions regarding parole.

“My personal feeling, based on my long professional experience, is that most of the folks who are up for parole would do just fine outside of prison,” he said. “However, even if you’re a person who disagrees with me on that front, you should still dislike the current process because it’s not informed by any evidence or any data.

“If you’re the kind of person who thinks that most folks should stay inside, you should also be horrified by the fact that these release decisions are being made essentially on people’s guts.”

This article first appeared on Carolina Public Press and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Arrest of Wisconsin judge ‘escalation’ in Trump-judiciary conflict, Democrats warn appeared first on tennesseelookout.com



Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The content presents a case focused on the rights of juvenile offenders, specifically in relation to parole decisions. The emphasis on rehabilitation, fairness in parole processes, and concerns over the accuracy and fairness of the system reflects a more progressive, or center-left, perspective. It advocates for juvenile offenders’ opportunity for parole based on their potential for reform, which aligns with broader left-leaning views on criminal justice reform and the belief in rehabilitation over punitive measures. The inclusion of legal cases like Graham v. Florida and Miller v. Alabama suggests an alignment with the idea of justice for juvenile offenders in line with constitutional protections. While the tone is not overtly political, the framing of the issues reflects concerns typically associated with progressive criminal justice reform.

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Mental health pros worry about possible cuts to 988 hotline funding

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www.youtube.com – ABC11 – 2025-04-25 21:36:26


SUMMARY: Mental health professionals express concern over potential cuts to the 988 suicide prevention hotline, particularly for LGBTQ+ youth. A leaked budget draft reveals the Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate funding for specialized services. Since its launch in July 2022, the hotline has answered over 219,000 calls, with rising demand for mental health services noted by professionals like Shawn Thomas. The North Carolina Department of Health emphasizes that federal funding is crucial for timely call responses and effective service delivery. Advocates are alarmed, warning that losing this resource would significantly impact vulnerable populations.

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Mental health professionals say the 988 hotline is an invaluable resource, and any cuts would affect the strides being made in the state to meet growing demand.

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