In response to a complaint about a resident burying and burning trash on their property, the Person County Health Department began an investigation of groundwater in the area of Country Club Road (CCR). After finding the presence of tetrachloroethene (PCE) contaminated groundwater in one private well, the Person County Health Department sampled additional private wells in this area and discovered the presence of PCE contaminated groundwater in three wells at concentrations above the Maximum Contaminate Level (MCL) of 5 parts per billion (ppb).
Based on these findings the Person County Health Department mailed notification letters to residents with elevated levels of PCE and DCE in their wells. The notification letters included a health advisory against drinking water obtained from these wells.
On March 6, 2009, the North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (NCDENR) referred this site to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Initial response actions taken by EPA consisted of providing drinking water to three of the residences identified to be at risk from exposure to contaminated groundwater. Additional response objectives identified by EPA included identifying any additional private wells which could be at risk, performing additional sampling of these private wells, and identifying and mitigating the source of groundwater contamination. On April 1, 2009, EPA’s Science and Ecological Support Division (SESD) performed a sampling investigation on six private wells in this area. The sampling results from the April 1, 2009, sampling event indicated that levels of PCE had decreased in concentration relative to the concentrations from previous sampling event. Furthermore the results revealed that one of the private wells had PCE at a concentration above the corresponding MCL. The other five wells were either non-detect or had concentrations of PCE below the MCL.
The 3 residents identified to be above the MCL were:
152 Country Club Road
172 Country Club Road
192 Country Club Road
EPA recommended these 3 residents have carbon filtration systems be installed as an alternate source of drinking water. Residents were continued on bottled water (provided by ERRS) and given the option to allow EPA to install and maintain filtration units for one year from date of installation. An agreement was signed by 2 of the residents (152 CCR & 172 CCR) acknowledging their responsibility of maintaining the filtration units after the one year date of installation. One resident (192 CCR) declined EPA's offer (declination letter signed) and will be providing their own bottled water; a quote from Le Bleu of Raleigh was provided to the homeowner at their request.
On January 14, 2010 two kinetico carbon filtration units were installed at 152 CCR & 172 CCR. Resident's were present during installation and given instructions on reporting any malfunctions with the system. All maintenance and sampling will be provided by EPA for one year from date of installation.
Bottled water service will continue to residents of 152 CCR & 172 CCR until first round of sampling (one month after installation) and analyticals confirm levels of PCE are below MCL. 192 CCR will begin to provide their own bottled water.
EPA will provide maintenance and sampling for both filtration units for a period of one year from date of installation.
192 Country Club Rd resident declined EPA's offer to install filtration unit.
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