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Providing safe, quality drinking water to our community is a core mission at Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA). This includes state-of-the-art treatment and intensive laboratory analysis and monitoring that starts at our intakes on the Cape Fear River and at groundwater wells and continues along multiple points throughout more than 1,000 miles of pipes that distribute water to our customers.

The information below summarizes CFPUA’s current, successful efforts to keep lead out of our customers’ drinking water and an upcoming, federally funded program to meet new regulations. Key takeaways include:

• Publicly available test results (see below) demonstrate CFPUA’s long-standing corrosion control program is effective in helping to prevent lead in older plumbing fixtures from leaching into drinking water.
• CFPUA has a three-year head start in achieving key components of EPA’s new regulations for lead.
• This early, proactive work helped CFPUA secure $4.16 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding, administered by the State. This was the largest dollar amount among the 30 communities awarded such funds in North Carolina.

CFPUA’s corrosion-control program: a powerful, time-tested first line of defense

Health effects from lead contamination are well-known, its potential for harm brought to light by the 2014 crisis in Flint, Michigan. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warns that lead can harm mental and physical development in children and cause cancer, heart disease, and other severe health problems in adults.

The most common sources of lead in drinking water are old plumbing fixtures in customers’ homes and businesses that can leach lead into water. To help prevent this from occurring, water utilities like CFPUA employ corrosion-control programs.

At CFPUA, we add orthophosphate, which is recognized as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Orthophosphate is added after treatment and forms a protective coating inside pipes and household plumbing fixtures, creating an effective barrier between any potential lead and drinking water.

Does it work? Test results speak for themselves

The EPA introduced regulations to prevent exposure to lead in 1991 with its Lead and Copper Rule (LCR). The Lead and Copper Rule (LCR) requires water systems such as CFPUA to test water sampled at homes of potentially susceptible customers according to a mandated schedule. CFPUA’s routine monitoring results show that we consistently meet EPA’s compliance requirements – strong evidence that our corrosion-control program is working as intended.

Annual water sampling results from CFPUA’s two water systems, as included in our 2023 Drinking Water Quality Report (also known as the Consumer Confidence Report), show lead and copper levels far below current regulatory action levels:

CFPUA-Wilmington Water System*

*CFPUA’s main drinking water system, serving approximately 95 percent of CFPUA customers.

Monterey Heights Water System**

**A smaller water system in Southern New Hanover County operated by CFPUA, sourcing drinking water from groundwater wells.

EPA’s revision and improvements to the LCR

In 2021, EPA revised the LCR and this year, expanded it with proposed Lead and Copper Rule Improvements. The revision and improvements introduce a significant number of new regulations and changes to existing ones, including reducing the lead “action level” from 15 micrograms/liter(ug/L) (equivalent to parts per billion) to 10 ug/L and changing where and how samples are taken. The results of CFPUA’s most recent lead monitoring would have complied with the new, more stringent action level for lead. Find out more about the LCR revision and improvements on EPA’s website: https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/proposed-lead-and-copper-rule-improvements.

A major component of the revision and improvements is a requirement for public water systems to create and maintain a publicly accessible inventory of water service lines in their service areas. Service lines are pipes that extend from water mains in the street to water meters (the public side maintained by CFPUA) and from water meters to customers’ homes or businesses (the private side maintained by the property owner). The new rules require water utilities to determine what materials the public and private service lines in their systems are made of and replace any lines found to be made of lead or galvanized pipe that is preceded by a lead pipe.

CFPUA’s proactive and subsequent service line inventory work

In 2020, recognizing the LCR revision was coming, CFPUA staff began poring over historical records, dating back to 1895, to look for evidence of potential problem areas. They also tapped into the knowledge of those who maintain our water distribution system and may have encountered areas warranting closer, hands-on inspection.

CFPUA has more than 70,000 service accounts. In many cases, the materials composition of service lines to these accounts can be determined by checking available records. This includes information created prior to 2008, the first year of CFPUA’s operation following the merger of existing water and sewer services of the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County. Information about older connections may be unavailable or less reliable. In these cases, one more time-consuming way to find out is to visit the address, dig a hole, and examine the service line. Fortunately, this process has been underway at CFPUA for more than three years.

CFPUA’s head start helps secure N.C.’s largest share of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds

The final LCR Improvements included an unanticipated requirement for water systems to identify the materials used in customers’ side of the water service line as well. To accomplish this, CFPUA is contracting with multiple survey firms to examine private-side water lines. We also are harnessing the power of machine learning, an EPA approved type of artificial intelligence that uses statistical algorithms to develop reliable predictions based on available data, helping to fill information gaps and prioritize areas for further investigation.

CFPUA is nearing the completion of inventorying all of its 70,000 water service lines and will be submitting that information to State regulators by the October 16, 2024, deadline. To date, no lead service lines have been found in the CFPUA system. In addition, our early work to examine close to 10,000 water service lines played a key role in recently securing $4.16 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding administered by the N.C. Department of Environmental Quality. These funds will be used to replace approximately 300 galvanized service lines that are suspected to have lead “gooseneck” connectors, alleviating CFPUA ratepayers of this financial burden.

Note that CFPUA’s corrosion-control program also coats these galvanized lines and any lead connections to help prevent lead from leaching into drinking water.

Utilities such as CFPUA are expected to have their initial service line inventories complete by October 16, 2024, and to annually replace at least 10 percent of any lead service lines in their systems. Thanks to the proactive work by staff, CFPUA is well positioned to meet these important requirements.