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Residents press Moore County for better transit and answer on possible PFAS contamination
Summary
Public commenters asked Moore County to invest in transportation improvements and to investigate alleged PFAS contamination near the airport; county staff requested lab documentation and said it would follow up with town partners and regulators.
Multiple residents used the meeting’s public-comment period to press the county on transportation access and local water-quality testing.
Dr. Christine Gannes, director of community outreach for the Coalition for Peace, Love, and Justice, asked the board for budgetary support to modernize transportation funding. She described Moore County Transportation System (MCTS) trip distributions—roughly one-third aging, one-third elderly/disabled, 12% social-services trips, 10% non-emergent medical transport and small percentages for developmental-disability and employment trips—and criticized restricted operating hours (Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.). Gannes said token-purchase fees and credit-card processing costs create barriers for riders on fixed incomes and noted the recent loss of an Apines grant; she requested a report on a recent NCDOT/IMD conference and urged the county to explore options for extended service hours and reduced rider fees.
Shira Collins described on-the-ground testing near her home by the PFAS Research Institute and said she received lab results indicating PFOS at about 570 (she contrasted that with a reference number of 0.7 cited in her remarks). Collins said she found an untested county-owned culvert from the airport and suspected other sources of contamination making the creek by her yard unsafe for children; she asked the county and town to convene a focused meeting and provide remediation. County commissioners and staff asked Collins to provide her lab reports; staff said they had heard of the complaint and would follow up with Southern Pines and the relevant state regulators.
County staff acknowledged the transportation funding challenges and later in the meeting approved the Unified Grant Application (UGA) phase 1 pre-application so Moore County Transit could pursue 5311 and other transit funding through NCDOT IMD.
What the county said it would do: staff requested copies of Collins’s lab results and said they would coordinate with Southern Pines town staff and applicable state agencies; transportation staff were authorized to submit pre-application documents required to preserve future grant eligibility.
