State budget includes local appropriations

RALEIGH – After a one-year delay, members of the North Carolina General Assembly have agreed on a state budget, one that appropriates funding for two projects in Gates County.

According to Gates County Manager Scott Sauer, an appropriation in the amount of $250,000 supports the county’s ongoing Fluoride Mitigation project by way of a hydro stratigraphic study. County officials first made that request on Sept. 27, 2024.

Sauer added that a second pot of money ($325,000) is appropriated to support the ongoing evaluation of water treatment options, including construction of a reverse osmosis facility and regional supply alternatives that may be available in the future.

Overt the past two years, Gates County local government officials have searched for ways to lower the high levels of fluoride in the county’s public water system. That came on the heels of a national toxicology study released Aug. 21, 2024 regarding high levels of fluoride in public water systems across the United States, including Gates County, could cause lower IQ in children. That study encompassed 2017-2019.

There was discussion in September of 2024 of digging test wells in search of a deeper water source where fluoride levels are lower. At that time, the county was not in violation of the EPA’s drinking water standard. That level is 4 parts per million (four pounds of fluoride in four million gallons of water). Gates County’s water system at that time was tested at 3.0 parts per million range. However, the NC Department of Environmental Quality recommends a fluoride level in drinking water of no higher than 0.8 parts per million.

Other alternatives include using water from the Chowan River, which would involve the expensive construction of a treatment plant; combinations of low and high ground water fluoride with blending; sodium alumina technology, activated carbon contactors with blending, and reserve osmosis filtration with blending.

In 1976, a study by the NC Department of Commerce noted that water from two aquifers, particularly in the vicinity of Gatesville and Sunbury, contained excessive amounts of fluoride, as much as 6 to 8 parts per million. This study pre-dates the Town of Gatesville water system and the Gates County water system.

The county’s water system initially used a fluoride filter and fluoride removal system, until it was taken offline in 1990.

Original article online at: https://www.roanoke-chowannewsherald.com/news/state-budget-includes-local-appropriations-f5287023