Pittsboro, NC – This morning (9/26/23), the Town of Pittsboro received the results of rush samples taken yesterday at various places across the Town. The results indicate that the concentration of 1,4 dioxane throughout the Town is significantly lower than the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Health Advisory level (HAL) of 35 ug/L, or parts per billion.
The various testing locations revealed the following:
Raw Grab from Intake – 6.77 µg/L
Finished Water Grab – 5.26 µg/L
Chatham Park Tank – 3.23 µg/L
Chatham Forest Standpipe – 3.07 µg/L
Million Gallon Tank – 2.60 µg/L
Horton Tank – 1.74 µg/L
The town is cautiously optimistic with these results, which indicate whether the “slug,” or concentrated area of 1,4 dioxane, has passed us and we had minimal uptake, or it is just now reaching us. Our test results from composite samples taken over the weekend are expected tomorrow, as are our rush samples taken from the locations listed above. Once we receive these results, we can determine if our 1,4 dioxane concentration is moving in a positive or negative direction.
Further, once we can determine the concentration trajectory, the Town will decide whether to continue the free treated water program at Chatham Marketplace. The filtration system at Chatham Marketplace consists of both Reverse Osmosis (RO) and Ultraviolet Light (UV) filtration, which are very effective at removing 1,4 dioxane from drinking water.
We encourage everyone to sign up for Town news and alerts by visiting pittsboronc.gov/news and clicking the “Notify Me” button. Users can customize the types of news/alerts they want and how they want to receive them. We also encourage everyone to sign up for emergency alerts from Chatham County at readychatham.org under the ALERT CHATHAM tab. In the event of an emergency, the Town can use this system for alert and warning purposes.
The next release will occur tomorrow once we have received the testing results. We appreciate our customers’ patience as we work through this situation together.