DURHAM - The city of Durham submitted test results in October indicating its drinking water met federal standards. But the city withheld samples in which lead was detected in dangerous amounts.

Following a News & Observer investigation, Durham officials acknowledged this week that they failed to disclose at least 20 test results from seven homes to state regulators, a violation of federal rules. Five homes had high levels of lead.

The city didn't notify residents of some affected homes that their tap water was tainted, a violation that endangered the health of those families. Ingesting even tiny amounts of lead can be toxic for pregnant women and children under 6, causing brain damage and developmental difficulties.

"We overlooked some things," said Vicki Westbrook, the city water department's manager for regulatory compliance. "We made mistakes. But it wasn't like we were trying to hide anything. We didn't do this on purpose."

Knowingly submitting false test results is a felony under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, punishable by fines and prison time. Durham's director of water management, Terry Rolan, said his department's failure to disclose the data properly resulted from ignorance of the rules.

"Nobody in our department would knowingly do that," said Rolan, national president of the American Waterworks Association, an advocacy and lobbying group for water systems. He said the city conducted a "special internal investigative study" of selected homes in areas thought to be at highest risk, not knowing the results could be held against it.

"We might have shot ourselves in the foot by trying to do the right thing," Rolan said.

Since The N&O started raising questions about Durham's lead tests in November, the city sent hundreds more sampling results to the state Division of Environmental Health. The city expects to deliver another batch of previously undisclosed results from the additional study to state regulators today.

Terry Pierce, director of the Division of Environmental Health, said Wednesday that Durham likely will be required to recalculate its score on the compliance test.

That could cause the city to fail safe drinking water standards, triggering tighter regulatory supervision and potentially scuttling a multimillion-dollar deal to supply drinking water to the neighboring town of Hillsborough.

Chris Thomas, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's section chief in charge of drinking water for an eight-state region that includes North Carolina, said he was "troubled" by Durham's failure to disclose so many results from homes it was required to test.

"That's a red flag," Thomas said.

Testing required

Durham, like all sizable public water suppliers, is required by federal law to test water from carefully selected residences for lead. The results the city has reported since 1991 have always complied with federal standards, so Durham is allowed to test every three years.

The compliance system is based on self-monitoring and trust. Most water systems send samples to the state lab in Raleigh or to a private facility for testing. But Durham, like nine other North Carolina cities, has its own state-certified lab. Raleigh and Cary also maintain labs.

Durham was asked to perform tests a year early after blood from a child from the Penrith Townhomes was found in March to contain high amounts of lead.

The Durham County Health Department tested water from the kitchen faucet of the child's apartment and found it contained lead at 837 parts per billion -- nearly 60 times the federal limit considered safe. It was the second case of lead poisoning linked to a North Carolina public water system.

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