By Rose Hooper
A Cashiers woman has been hospitalized for the same symptoms
– vomiting, diarrhea, extreme headaches, sore throat, nasal
congestion and stomach cramps – her neighbors are experiencing.
All believe a common link in their condition is their drinking
water.
Public meeting July 25
The situation is so serious, they say, that a public meeting
has been set for 7 p.m. Friday, July 25, in the upstairs gym
of the Cashiers Community Center.
"I'm dying from this," Cindy Grady said July 18 from
her hospital bed in Asheville. "I'm telling you, contaminated
water is a big problem for the southern end of Jackson County,
maybe even bigger than any of us realize."
‘Look death in the eye'
During a meeting two weeks ago with Jackson County Department
of Public Health Director Randall Turpin, Grady told him, "I
want you to look death in the eyes. I may not make it, but there
are 40 people behind me who will take up the fight for clean
water."
"I can't solve the water problem in Cashiers, but I can
help bring it to light, whether it is real or not," said
Turpin, who advised the individuals to organize the public meeting
and seek county support.
He further advised them to ask county commissioners to fund
someone to test for organic and inorganic contaminants and share
those results with N.C. Division of Water Quality and the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
While doctors have successfully treated Grady for e-coli, they
continue to address her complications from mold – both
contaminants Grady said came directly from her drinking water.
One of Grady's neighbors using the same water source was also
hospitalized for vomiting, diarrhea, extreme headaches, excessive
stomach gas and later developed a parasite worm on the bottom
of her foot.
Mountain water not always pure
"Folks think in Jackson County we have pure mountain water,
but I'm here to tell you that's far from true," said Grady,
whose water source on Bull Pen Road came from a pipe in a stream
bed flowing into a holding tank.
"The pump house was green from algae, the insulation was
mildewed, and we found animal feces," Grady said.
May be widespread
But it's not just a single contaminated surface water; the problem
is much more widespread, said Pam Schiele, who lives on Dana
Place, just off U.S. 64 West, about a half mile from the Cashiers
crossroads.
"We have contaminated wells up here – I'd guess in
at least a 20-mile radius, possibly even more. At this point,
I just don't know how far it goes," said Schiele, who has
recently experienced fatigue, night sweats, nausea, nasal problems,
congestion and "whole body ache."
Her physician originally diagnosed tuberculosis, but tests sent
to the CDC in Atlanta revealed she had microbacterium malmanse.
"When I heard about other people around me getting sick,
it didn't take long to see a pattern," Schiele said. "I
knew it had to be the water."
Test results
She paid to have her water tested, with results showing coliform,
cadmium, nitrate and selenium, just to begin the list.
"I became really alarmed and then when I started doing
research, I got even more alarmed. Do you know how many places
up here have been cited in the past for significantly violating
the Environmental Protection Agency's Safe Drinking Water Act?
Well, I'll just tell you some of them and what the EPA found,"
said Schiele, noting that groundwater is the source for all
these systems, including:
Cashiers Village (50 users): lead, copper, nitrate, arsenic,
barium, cadmium, cyanide.
Wade Hampton Club (180 users): PCB, benzopyrene, chlordane,
lead, copper, methoxychlor, atrazine, hexachlorocyclopentadiene.
("Something with that many letters can't be good for you,"
she said).
Trillium Links and Village (40 users): arsenic, chromium, cyanide,
selenium, thallium.
Cedar Ridge Estates (65 users): nitrate, lead, copper.
Cashiers Community Child Development Center (37 users): nitrate,
coliform, lead, copper.
Camp Merrie-Woode (250 users): nitrate.
"That's just a beginning list," said Schiele. "I
could go on and on."
The "scary" part, she said, is that the EPA only regulates
wells that serve 15 or more residents. As a non-regulatory agency,
the health department only tests single-family water sources.
"So that leaves those with 2-14 residents on the same system
with no recourse," she said.
Meanwhile, the health department is continuing its inquiries
into possible water contamination, currently concentrating on
cadmium.
Underground aquifers
"We don't know where these underground aquifers are or
how far the water travels," said Turpin, who stressed that
the level of contamination was important. A test result may
show a trace of a contaminant, but not enough parts per million
to cause alarm, according to Turpin.
Because of highly-fractured bedrock, underground aquifers are
difficult to pinpoint, said Buddy Melton, environmental engineer
with the Asheville office of the N.C. Department of Environment,
Health and Natural Resources.
"Down east you can track the aquifers, but it is not so
easy here in the mountains," Melton said. "You could
have an individual family drilling a private well and hit bedrock
with a shallow layer of groundwater at 150 feet and it's enough
flow for them.
"Right next door you could have a public system that needed
to drill deeper, 400 feet perhaps, to have enough flow. Although
the private well and the public well are next door to each other,
their aquifer sources could be entirely different," Melton
said.
Inside trouble
Contamination could also be coming from within rather than from
without, according to Melton.
"Sometimes contamination is due to galvanized pipe and
lead solder joints on copper plumbing," he said.
What can you do?
If you are concerned about your water source, take the advise
of experts and follow these steps to help prevent illness:
– Have your water tested.
– Install a filter, purifier or distiller, or an entire
system, including ultra-violet light, depending on the results.
– Periodically disinfect your water source.
– Check your pipes, especially if you have old, galvanized
plumbing.
– Boil your water for at least one minute at a rolling
boil.
For more information, contact the Jackson County Department
of Public Health at 586-8994, the Asheville offices of the N.C.
Division of Water Quality at (828) 251-6208 and DENR at (828)
251-6786 or the EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.
