State starts responding to problems

The N&O's investigation of the state's regulation of drinking water began late last summer. After the first few months, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources began tape recording interviews of its officials and using transcripts to compile lists of problems the newspaper inquired about. The Governor's Office was kept informed, sometimes in memos, sometimes in meetings of up to a dozen people.

Using our questions as a guide, the administration started responding to problems before the stories were published. Some findings and responses:

FINDING: The state doesn't require that private wells be tested, even though state geologists know there are areas where there is a good chance that well water is tainted with naturally occurring arsenic or radiological contaminants.

FIX: The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources considered asking for a well-testing bill last year but didn't. It says it will this year. Tests for bacteria would be required; other tests would be left up to the state's Commission for Health Services.

FINDING: Only 35 of 100 counties have well construction/testing programs of any sort, and most are minimal.

FIX: The department will push for legislation that would require county health departments to enforce state well-construction standards, effective July 1, 2007. To encourage counties to start a well program right away, the department has asked the governor to ask the legislature for $800,000 to fund grants of up to $60,000.

FINDING: Only eight state employees have been assigned to enforce state well-construction standards. An attempt five years ago to get money to hire more employees was rejected by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

FIX: The department has asked the governor to ask the General Assembly for $300,000 to hire five more employees to help enforce those standards.

THE TEAM AND THE RESEARCH

This report was led by reporter Pat Stith, 63, who came to The N&O in 1971. Stith has spent much of his career investigating state government and has won numerous state and national awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. He is a member of the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame; his last series, which examined the impact of overweight trucks on state highways, last month won the North Carolina Press Association's annual award for public service.

For this series, Stith, along with reporters Catherine Clabby and Wade Rawlins and database editor David Raynor, examined a stack of paper records 8 feet high and acquired databases from the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the N.C. State Laboratory of Public Health and Wake County. The reporters also interviewed more than 100 people.

Other members of The N&O series team:

Photographers: Juli Leonard, Robert Willett, Lisa Lauck

Graphics: Judson Drennan

News researcher: Brooke Cain

Designer: Tim Myers

Copy editor: Vann Trotter

Online: Valerie Aguirre, Bob Brueckner

Photo editor: Robert Miller

Editor: Steve Riley