WAKE FOREST, N.C. -
Aqua North Carolina will provide 40 Wake Forest homes with clean water after it was found the homes' wells contained the carcinogen TCE.
The homes will be in addition to the nine homes on and around Stony Hill Road already connected to Aqua's water supply.
"These homeowners are rightfully concerned about the state of their drinking water," said Troy Rendell, area manager for Aqua. "They should feel good knowing that, once connected to our public water system, they and their families will receive water that is regularly tested and meets all state and federal health standards."
Aqua has 84,000 customers across North Carolina.
Federal and state laws require Aqua to test for contaminants like TCE three times a year. Rendell says Aqua will increase testing to four times a year in the affected Wake Forest community.
Aqua will release TCE test results to the designated HOA and will make them available to individual homeowners upon request.
In 2002, TCE was dumped from a building on Stony Hill Road. DENR was alerted about the contamination in 2005. Nearly seven years later, in June 2012, the EPA confirmed TCE had spread to the private water wells of 21 families.
About two and a half miles north of Stony Hill Road, another neighborhood, Mangum Estates, is also dealing with water contamination. Nine homes in Mangum Estates have dangerous levels of water contamination.
State and federal officials, however, do not believe that the TCE contamination in Mangum Estates is connected to the Stony Hill Road area contamination.
TCE can cause cancer, coma and even death.
