DURHAM - Nearly six weeks after Durham officials acknowledged that the city's tap water failed last year to meet federal standards for lead contamination, state regulators have been unable to verify those test results because of "discrepancies" in the data provided by the city.

The lead test results the city submitted in an electronic database in late January do not fully match the written records, said Laura Leonard, spokeswoman for the state Division of Environmental Health.

"There were discrepancies," Leonard said Tuesday. "We have been waiting, and are still waiting, [for] the verified data from Durham. And without that verified data, a determination cannot be made."

The state sent Durham's water department an e-mail message Feb. 12 listing 29 separate inconsistencies in water sample reporting. Nearly half of those were test results listed in either the electronic spreadsheet or hard copies provided to the state, but not both.

The state questioned whether 10 other samples that were split, with part going to Durham's internal lab and the other going to a private Raleigh firm, came from the "first draw" -- the first water out of the tap. If one came then and the second came from one taken a few minutes later -- when lead levels could have dissipated -- the results could be invalidated, state officials said.

Vicki Westbrook, the Durham water department's manager for regulatory compliance, said the city has answered as many of the state's questions as it could, including confirming that the split samples were taken from the primary tap water draw.

The delay, she said, is at Tritest Inc., the Raleigh laboratory that tested 264 of the 819 samples taken in 2006. Tritest owner William Sherman said Wednesday that the mix-ups have been fixed and that properly classified reports would be sent to state regulators today.

Officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which is conducting a separate investigation into Durham's 2006 lead testing, are also waiting for Durham to submit a verified list of results.

"It is an issue that is being investigated, so there is only so much I can say, but we are waiting for information from Durham," said Dawn Harris-Young, a spokeswoman for the EPA's regional office in Atlanta, which oversees North Carolina.

'Looking for problems'

Durham's drinking water has been under scrutiny since last April, when the county health department determined that a child younger than 6 had been poisoned by lead after drinking tainted tap water. Officials disclosed little about the extent of the poisoning.

The city originally submitted its 2006 sampling results in October, saying it had passed the federally mandated lead tests. The government requires 90 percent of homes tested to be below the "action level" of 15 parts per billion, lead to water.

On Dec. 22, The News & Observer disclosed that the city had withheld key test results that, if included as federal rules require, would cause Durham to fail.

The state issued the city a violation Jan. 26 for not submitting all the test results it was required to. The city could face further sanctions and fines from both state and federal authorities.

City leaders have maintained they didn't know that testing conducted in June, July and August would count toward compliance. City manager Patrick Baker said in an interview Wednesday that Water Management Director Terry Rolan tested many homes that summer to find trouble spots.

"I think Terry just took an aggressive approach with it: 'I'm looking for problems, not to try to pass a test,' " Baker said.

City officials have acknowledged they will fall well short of federal standards and have begun retesting certain homes as required because of that failure.

The news on that front, so far, is good, officials say.

Only one of the 147 homes in the "compliance pool" tested over the federal action level. That home was well over, at 487 parts per billion. Westbrook said it's unclear what caused the high reading at 3927 Colorado Ave. She said the customer hadn't participated in the testing program in the past several years.

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