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Last year, Miles said in her budget request that bacterial contamination had been found in 376 water systems in the past year and that most were not investigated. She said she needed 26 more employees, including inspectors. She didn't get any.

"Each positive sample has the potential to become another [Walkerton], Canada, or Milwaukee, Wisconsin, incident where people become sick or die as a result of insufficient state response to known or suspected contamination," her budget request said.

She said almost the same thing five years ago, in 2001, with the same result.

In Walkerton in 2000 and Milwaukee in 1993, a total of about 400,000 people got sick, and dozens died.

What was left out

What Miles did not put in her budget request is just as disturbing: More than 40 percent of North Carolina's 6.5 million public water system customers drank water last year that had not been properly tested for various contaminants or, if the water was tested, it flunked.

So far, Miles' fears of widespread sickness from bacterial contamination have not been realized.

There were only 76 cases of cryptosporidiosis, which causes abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea and, in rare instances, death, reported in North Carolina in 2004, the most recent year for which complete statistics are available.

"We investigate every one of those, and we have never traced it back to a public water supply," said Dr. Jeffrey Engel, the state epidemiologist. "We have traced it back to recreational exposures, maybe a single contaminated well, but never to a large distribution system."

The state enforces standards set by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act, which are beyond the technical expertise of some owners and operators. Meanwhile, water quality standards are getting stricter, one reason why more systems are failing water quality tests.

In Alexander County, for example, Alden King's water system was OK under previous standards for arsenic, which allowed 50 parts per billion. Now, the standard is 10 parts per billion, and he doesn't think he should be forced to meet the tougher test.

King doesn't believe arsenic, which occurs naturally in soil and minerals and can dissolve into water, is as dangerous as the government says.

"That's such an insipid thing; it's long range," said King, 73. "I don't think you could live long enough for it to hurt you."

Ken Rudo, a state toxicologist, says arsenic in drinking water is unsafe at its lowest detectable level, 1 part per billion. He says people should buy filters or switch to bottled water if arsenic is detected.

Arsenic levels in Cedar Woods have sometimes been more than double the 10-part-per-billion state standard, which the EPA instituted nationwide in January.

King drilled a well in 1985, buried pipes and started his own water system after carving up and selling part of a 60-acre farm he owned north of Hickory. People bought lots, moved into mobile or manufactured homes, and started buying water from him for $10 a month.

Again and again, King's operation has come to the attention of the state Public Water Supply Section. In 1989, there was coliform bacteria in his water, state records say. In 1994, the state faulted King for not proving he tested for volatile organic chemicals, which can cause cancer. In 1997, on at least three occasions, an inspector said he saw no evidence that the well had been disinfected with chlorine, which is applied to kill bacteria.

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