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 Watchdogarticle.
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/.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-31 16:37:00
(The Center Square) – Judicial warfare is eroding the confidence in Americans’ justice system leaving a blight on justice itself, says a North Carolina congresswoman who leads the Rules Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C, is speaking out against judges blocking the president’s decisions as granted in the Constitution ahead of a Tuesday congressional hearing.
“As of late, we have certainly seen a slew of rulings by rogue judges that surpass their own constitutional authority,” she said in a post to social media Monday afternoon. “This is judicial warfare in the flesh. If it is not remedied in a commonsense and expeditious fashion, these exercises in partisanship will do further irreparable damage to the nation and to the confidence of Americans in our justice system.”
More than a dozen orders from President Donald Trump – more than in the entire time Joe Biden, Barack Obama and George W. Bush served as presidents – have been thwarted or attempted to be blocked. Among the judges in the spotlight is U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, a pivotal figure in deportation of people accused of being in gangs in addition to just being named to preside in a case involving military operations and a messaging app.
Boasberg, appointed by Bush to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 2002, was nominated to the federal bench by Obama and confirmed in the Senate 96-0 in 2012.
Boasberg on Wednesday issued and on Friday extended a temporary restraining order that prevents Trump from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport people believed to be part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. A hearing, Judicial Overreach and Constitutional Limits on the Federal Courts, is at 10 a.m. Tuesday to be conducted jointly by the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet, and the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government from within the Judiciar Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
California Republican Darrell Issa is chairman of the former committee, Texas’ Chip Roy the latter. North Carolina Democrat Deborah Ross is a minority member of the former; North Carolina Republican Mark Harris is a majority member of the latter.
Witnesses scheduled include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Cindy Romero, a victim of criminal activity believed perpetrated by Tren de Aragua in Aurora, Colo. Also on the invite list are witnesses from the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.
Other federal judges drawing fire from supporters of the president include Biden appointees Amir Ali, Loren AliKhan, Deborah Boardman, Angel Kelley and Brendan Hurson; Obama appointees Paul Engelmayer, Amy Berman Jackson, John McConnell and Leo Sorokin; Bush appointee Joseph Laplante; Bill Clinton appointee William Alsup; and Ronald Reagan appointees John Coughenhour and Royce Lamberth.
“Without question,” Foxx said, “exceeding constitutional mandates as a matter of judicial philosophy does nothing more than blight justice itself.”
www.thecentersquare.com – By Alan Wooten | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-03-31 15:21:00
(The Center Square) – Wildfires continued to burn Monday in the Carolinas, though a sign of optimism arose with a burning ban lifted in 41 South Carolina counties and measured rainfall in both states.
Largest of the fires is Table Rock in Pickens and Greenville counties of South Carolina. The Black Cove fire is burning in North Carolina’s Polk and Henderson counties, the Rattlesnake fire is burning Haywood County, and the Alarka 5 fire is in Swain County.
South Carolina’s Horry County at the Atlantic Ocean and North Carolina border, and the northwestern counties of Spartanburg, Greenville, Pickens and Oconee remain under a burning ban. In North Carolina, all 100 counties have a ban in effect.
The Table Rock fire size is about 13,191 acres in South Carolina and 574 in North Carolina, the Forestry Commission of the former said. Containment is about 30%.
The Persimmon Ridge fire is 2,078 acres in size with 64% containment. Rain Sunday into Monday measured nearly 1 inch.
The Covington Drive Fire in Myrtle Beach is about 85% contained and in mop-up and strengthened firebreaks stage.
In North Carolina, the Black Cove complex of fires are 7,672 acres in size. It includes the Black Cove (3,502 acres, 36% contained), Deep Woods (3,971 acres, 32% contained) and Fish Hook (199 acres, 100% contained) fires. Rainfall overnight into Monday helped the battle.
by Jane Winik Sartwell, Carolina Public Press March 31, 2025
Corn farmers on food stamps and taking second jobs. Equipment not being repaired. Debts going unpaid.
That’s the reality for many North Carolina corn growers this spring.
Last year was the worst season for the crop in state history, according to Ronnie Heiniger, a corn specialist at N.C. State. Drought wiped out acre after acre in eastern North Carolina last summer. Hurricane Helene devastated any crops left in the mountains.
Normally a $750 million dollar business, corn yielded only $250 million in 2024.
The economic cost to farmers — and their communities — couldn’t be more serious. And with a moderate drought stretching into the early days of this planting season, some are worried about more bad luck to come.
Corn is particularly sensitive to drought due to the crop’s very short window of pollination: This critical period of growth is just a few days long. In North Carolina, that vulnerable timeframe usually happens in June. If no rain falls during those days, corn will simply not continue to grow and yields will sharply decline.
“It was just about as bad as it could get (last season),” Heiniger recalled. “There’s no recovering from 60 days without rainfall. The mood among these farmers is very depressed. Some don’t know where to turn.”
But the N.C. House of Representatives is trying to help, hoping that the money allocated by the Corn Farmers Recovery Act, or HB 296, will be enough to keep the industry going.
The bill — which has yet to make it past the Appropriations Committee, the Rules Committee, the House and Senate — would transfer nearly $90 million from the State Emergency Response and Disaster Relief Fund to the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The money would go toward the creation of a 2024 Agricultural Disaster Corn Crop Loss Program, which corn farmers could apply to receive relief funds.
“To be honest, I don’t think most farmers thought the state was going to pay much attention to them,” Heiniger admitted. “This comes as a complete surprise.”
Corn farmers ‘at risk’
Corn is a summer staple on tables across North Carolina, but the crop also is necessary for feeding livestock and producing ethanol, which has a variety of uses. Sampson and Duplin counties, where pigs outnumber people 38 to 1, are home to the largest hog industries in the country. A shortage of feed could make that billion dollar business less profitable, too.
“I think a whole lot of farmers will be applying for this funding if it passes,” Zach Parker, an extension agent in Sampson County, told Carolina Public Press. “I don’t think devastation is understatement in the slightest. As for this summer, the only certainty is uncertainty. But I don’t think the corn industry is going anywhere. We have animals to feed.”
The bill would have the greatest economic impact in eastern North Carolina — the region with the largest, most valuable corn farms.
“In Wilson County, corn farmers have really been at risk,” said state Rep. Dante Pittman, a Democrat who serves Wilson and Nash counties and co-sponsored the Corn Farmers Recovery Act. “We saw an almost $4 million drop in income from corn in Wilson alone.
“The thing about this industry is that we don’t know what this year’s weather is going to bring. Anything we can do to prevent that loss from being devastating is necessary.”
Desperation down on the farm
With the cost of farming supplies high and crop commodity prices low, farmers are growing desperate.
“This bill will not only help farmers, but the farm communities that survive on selling fertilizer, chemicals, seeds, tractors and farm labor,” Heiniger explained. “It will help these rural communities where farmers are turning to food aid for their kids at school.”
The bill is geared toward those who grow corn, but since most farmers harvest a diverse set of crops, the money would in turn support production of soybeans, cotton, sweet potatoes and other North Carolina staples, according to Mike Yoder, an associate director of the College of Agriculture at N.C. State.
But some, like Rhonda Garrison, have concerns about the bill. Like, how will the relief funds be allocated? That’s something Garrison, director of the Corn Growers Association of North Carolina, wants to know.
“The bill is pretty ambiguous in terms of the formula for distributing the money,” Garrison contends. “I guess farmers will just have to apply for it and see what happens.”
But she doesn’t think the money will come too late to be useful.
“There were some farmers — overleveraged farmers who were already on the edge — that were done in completely by 2024,” Garrison said. “But not the majority. The potential money from this bill will likely go toward paying down debt.”
As planting season approaches, North Carolina corn farmers face difficult decisions about the future. There is a possibility the state will face some kind of natural disaster in 2025, whether it be hurricane, drought or continued fires.
“Us farmers rejoice in suffering because it produces character,” Heiniger said. “That’s what these farmers are trying to do: hold onto their character so they can get some hope and keep on going.”
