Union County public-health director reports elevated arsenic, manganese in private wells; ARPA pilot funded 8 repairs

Tracy Collie, Union County public-health director, provided a detailed briefing on the county’s private drinking-water well program, water-quality sampling results and a pilot well rehabilitation program funded with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money.

Collie said local enforcement of private-well construction and sampling is governed by North Carolina general statute and state rules that set construction standards, permitting and required sampling for new wells. Union County also enforces a local irrigation-well ordinance that applies across municipal boundaries. Collie described the permitting workflow (application, site visit, desk research for nearby contamination sources, permit issuance, construction inspections, chlorination and recommended sampling) and said the local health department issues a certificate of completion after construction inspections are satisfied; environmental health does not have authority to withhold a certificate of occupancy pending sampling results under current state rules.

Collie presented county program data for fiscal year 2025: about 664 well permits issued, 1,585 unduplicated site visits, 2,362 consultative visits and 808 samples collected. She reported common contaminants and sample percentages: manganese (about 15% of samples exceed the secondary MCL), arsenic (about 32.23% exceed the MCL), iron (about 3.35% exceed the MCL), total coliform present in about 27.62% of samples and E. coli present in about 1.59% of samples. Collie noted the arsenic MCL was lowered historically from 50 micrograms per liter to 10 micrograms per liter; she emphasized arsenic and manganese are neurotoxins with special concern for children.

Collie described partnerships with university researchers — including UNC-Chapel Hill Superfund Research and investigators at UNC-Charlotte and NC State — and said a test well was drilled at Jesse Helms Park as part of research into lower-cost residential treatment options for arsenic. She said groundwater geology (metavolcanic, highly fractured rock across much of the county) affects well performance and contaminant prevalence.

On the pilot program, Collie said Union County used $200,000 in ARPA funds to run a private-well rehabilitation and repair pilot. The application period opened July 1 and initially closed July 31, then was extended through August 31. Collie said 11 applicants were approved and eight were able to move forward with repairs or replacement; three were deemed not to need repairs after testing. The county capped awards at $30,000 per property; Collie said full well replacement costs vary by depth and geology but offered a rough industry estimate of about $15,000 for a full replacement in many cases. Collie said the pilot is closed and staff are compiling data to evaluate effectiveness and inform possible continuation or different funding approaches.

Commissioners and residents asked about disclosure at sale, whether a certificate of occupancy can be withheld for sampling results, and how to prevent future contamination. Collie said local rules do not allow environmental health to hold a certificate of completion for sampling results and that some counties have additional local ordinances; she said decisions about stronger local authority would require legal and policy review. Collie said the county will continue to collect data from the pilot to guide next steps and noted follow-up testing and homeowner reports are part of the pilot’s completion process.