Utilities - Brunswick County

NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC

IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR DRINKING WATER

Brunswick County Water System

Our water system recently violated a drinking water standard. Although this was not an emergency, as our customers, you have a right to know what happened, what you should do, and what we did to correct this situation.

We routinely monitor your water for turbidity (cloudiness). This tells us whether we are effectively filtering the water supply. Normal turbidity levels at our plant are 0.03 nephelometric turbidity units (NTU). Water samples taken on December 24th, 2009 showed levels of a maximum of 6.10 NTU. This was above the standard of 1 NTU. Because of these high levels of turbidity, there is an increased chance that the water may contain disease-causing organisms.

What should I do?

You do not need to boil your water or take other actions. We do not know of any contamination, all samples taken before, during, and after the event were absent for bacteria and none of our testing has shown disease-causing organisms in the drinking water.

What does this mean?

Turbidity has no health effects. However, turbidity can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for microbial growth. Turbidity may indicate the presence of disease-causing organisms. These organisms include bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can cause symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and associated headaches. These symptoms are not caused only by organisms in drinking water. If you experience any of these symptoms and they persist, you may want to seek medical advice. People with severely compromised immune systems, infants, and some elderly may be at increased risk. These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.

What happened? What was done? When will the problem be corrected?
During the early morning of December 24th 2009, at the Northwest Water Treatment Plant, a 16” pipe that penetrates a concrete wall had its’ water tight seal fail allowing partially treated water to enter the clearwell without being filtered as it normally would have been. As a consequence this partially treated water which is cloudier than our normal finished water was disinfected and made its way into a small portion of the distribution system before it could be flushed out. Water treatment plant personnel quickly recognized the problem isolated the pipe, failed seal, and the clarifier, then flushed the cloudy water out of the distribution system to prevent any further contamination.

Please share this information with all the other people who drink this water, especially those who may not have received this notice directly (for example, people in apartments, nursing homes, schools, and businesses). You can do this by posting this notice in a public place or distributing copies by hand or mail.

For more information, please contact:
Responsible Person - Jerry Pierce
System Name - Brunswick County Water System
System Address (Street) - PO Box 249
System Address (City, State, Zip) - Bolivia, NC 28422
Phone Number - 910-253-2657
System PWSID # - NC 04-10-045

Call Before You Dig!

Brunswick County Public Utilities
Water Distribution Division
(910) 253-2860

Request the location of utilities before you dig in highways, public rights-of-way, and private easements.

Notice of proposed excavation must be given, either orally or in writing not less than two (2) nor more than ten (10) working days prior to starting, for the purposes of locating, marking, flagging, and/or identifying underground utilities:

    Public Utilities Administration
    Water Distribution Division
    20 Referendum Drive NE, Building G
    P. O. Box 249
    Bolivia, NC 28422
    (910) 253-2860