“It’s in our values of the coop – we help provide clean water and healthy food to our community, so to be able to do that and provide that for owners and customers in our town is huge. That’s what we try to do here. I have children, I am proud to be working here, that we can do that and make a difference.”
~ Kirsha, Chatham Marketplace Manager
We’ve all heard the Flint, Michigan story of widespread lead contamination. Sadly, lead has become synonymous with Flint. Mark Ruffalo’s movie, Dark Waters, brought the PFAS crisis in Washington, West Virginia, to the national stage. In a changing environment impacted by the creation of approximately 700 new chemicals each year, researching and regulating potential contaminants to ensure safe drinking water proves to be no small feat.
That’s why we feel so moved when we hear FreshPure® Reverse Osmosis has become a lifeline for communities with potentially contaminated water. And when stores in high-risk areas reach out to us for support, it means we’re doing our job well. This article dives into the tales of two cities: quaint Pittsboro, North Carolina, and bustling Chicago, Illinois, and their up-stream battle against tainted water today.
1,4-Dioxane & PFAS: Pittsboro, NC
Just a stone’s through away from Raleigh lies the charming town of Pittsboro, NC, home to Chatham Marketplace, a cozy food co-op that happens to have a FreshPure® Waters machine. On a recent visit to connect with our Raleigh-Durham area retail partners and customers, we learned from Tonya, the Deli Manager, that every so often the town sends Pittsboro residents to Chatham Marketplace for free FreshPure® Reverse Osmosis. Why? We were saddened to learn that the Haw River, Pittsboro’s local water source, shows disconcertingly high levels of 1,4-Dioxane several times per year. When this happens, an announcement in the local paper, mass email, and social media posts sending folks to Chatham Marketplace for FreshPure ® RO is just one part of a multi-tiered strategy to take care of its citizens. We decided to dig a little deeper, and chat with General Manager, Evan Diamond, to hear his thoughts.
“It definitely feels good. We received a proclamation from the city government acknowledging our initial efforts here in the store. The first go with this program was 7 months long, leading up to the city installing a type of activated charcoal at the intake plant with a capacity of 1 million gallons of water. That filter does nothing for 1, 4 Dioxane, but does take out PFAS, which has resulted in Pittsboro having some of the cleanest water in the country. This has been huge for the daily cleanliness of our water. But, the issue crops up is when there is specific dumping of 1, 4 Dioxane chemicals upstream. This happens about 4 times each year and that’s when the town sends residents to get your RO. There’s an active lawsuit against the company that distributes the chemical. This is a cool, creative solution of the town, but it’s a business and not open 24/7, so we still need to think about that.”
~ Evan Diamond, Chatham Marketplace General Manager
During one instance in 2023 of Haw River contamination, local news station CBS 17 interviewed Pittsboro residents as they lined up to fill their bottles with FreshPure Reverse Osmosis® water. The most recent occurrence was stretched from January to February 2024.
Similar to the GenX crisis that came to light in 2017 in Wilmington, NC, (we performed a third-party lab test to ensure Wilmington residents that FreshPure® Waters was truly GenX free), a class action is being brought against Apollo Chemicals, stating that “while 1,4-Dioxane and PFAS are still unregulated by the EPA in drinking water, their discharge into lakes, rivers and streams violates a separate federal law, the Clean Water Act.” (NC Newsline). Seven years later, the suit against E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co and The Chemours Company over GenX contamination continues.
Lead: Chicago, IL
A new study by John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on Chicago’s water supply shows that two-thirds of children under the age of 6 may be exposed to lead. The Chicago Department of Water Management collected samples from nearly 40,000 homes and discovered that 75% of residential city-blocks are sourced by lead-contaminated water. Additionally, “city blocks with predominantly Black or Hispanic populations were less likely to be tested for lead and more likely to have lead-contaminated drinking water, the study found.” (CNN). Both the EPA and US Consumer Product and Safety Commission agree there is no safe level of lead in drinking water. Since much lower levels of lead affect children when compared to adults, dramatically affecting healthy development, children are particularly at risk. “Low levels of exposure have been linked to damage to the central and peripheral nervous system, learning disabilities, shorter stature, impaired hearing, and impaired formation and function of blood cells.” (EPA).
Read more about why it’s so important to avoid lead here.
What can you do?
- Find out if your home, work, or child’s school or daycare is supplied by lead pipes. Chicago is one of many cities and towns which still have lead pipes which were installed prior to the 1986 ban. The city of Chicago provides this online guide that anyone can utilize, as well as free lead test kits for locals. If you don’t live in Chicago, inquire with your local Department of Water Management as to how to get ahold of a test kit.
- If you do have a lead service line, find out how long it will take them to replace it. Chicago is so large that it will take 40 years to replace the quantity of lead pipes that have been discovered. Be proactive about testing and ask for filtration.
- FreshPure ® Waters is lead, PFAS, GenX, and 1,4 Dioxane free. Enter your zip code into our Store Locator to find a source near you. We are proud to have been offering communities a safe, affordable, sustainable source of clean water for over three decades.
FreshPure® Waters is hands on and highly proactive. Varying city water, changes in weather and runoff, aging pipes, and a rapidly evolving chemical profile all take a toll on water purification equipment. It takes constant monitoring. So, each and every week, our techs are out in the field testing, sanitizing, and assessing the water and our equipment so we always know it’s safe and clean. When a new potential contaminant arises, we send out a third-party lab to double and triple check. This is what we did when Wilmington, NC residents were faced with water contaminated by GenX. While there is still lots of work to be done on city infrastructure and environmental cleanup, we’re honored to provide a reliable source of clean water to you and your family in the meantime.
References
Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry. June 18th, 2015. Public Health Statement for 1,4 Dioxane.
CNN. March 19th, 2024 Two-thirds of young children in Chicago are exposed to dangerous lead levels in water, study finds.
Environmental Protection Agency. April 25th, 2024. Basic Information about Lead in Drinking Water.
John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. March 18, 2024. Study Estimates Nearly 70 Percent of Children Under Six in Chicago May Be Exposed to Lead-Contaminated Tap Water.
NC News Line. February 19th, 2024. Pittsboro suing Apollo Chemical over toxic 1,4-Dioxane in drinking water.
NPR. April 1st, 2024 . Lead in the drinking water is still a problem in the U.S. — especially in Chicago
The News & Observer. January 27th, 2024. Pittsboro is responding to a chemical release upstream. Here’s what to know.