‘No one drinks any of the water’: More lead found at UNC, now in residence halls
Detectable levels of lead have been found in water fixtures of more buildings at UNC-Chapel Hill, including — for the first time — student residence halls.
Messages and test results sent and posted online by the university’s Department of Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) on Friday show that lead was detected in five more campus buildings, including two student residences: Spencer Residence Hall and Stacy Residence Hall.
The other newly affected buildings are Battle Hall, Hill Hall and Henry Owl Building.
Lead has now been detected in 13 campus buildings since late August, according to notifications sent to occupants of the affected buildings and posted online.
As the university continues to test water fixtures in buildings in a three-phase plan, some students are becoming wary of water sources around campus.
“I think people are questioning every source of water,” Noah Mitchell, a senior transfer student who lives in Spencer Residence Hall, told The News & Observer in an interview Monday.
Since lead was first detected in Wilson Library in late August, Mitchell said he’s noticed that “no one drinks any of the water” from fountains in lecture halls or other campus buildings, “even if they didn’t find any levels of lead” during tests.
“No one’s been touching the water fountains or even going near them,” he said.
Lead found in communal water sources, in-room test results pending
Now, with lead being found in residence halls for the first time, the issue is much closer to home for Mitchell and other students — perhaps even in their own rooms.
Spencer Residence Hall, which was built in 1924, is a hall- or corridor-style residence, in which students share communal restrooms and shower facilities, but each room has its own sink.
Only test results for communal water fixtures in the building were included in the results released and emailed to residents Friday. Those tests began on Oct. 4, according to the Friday message from EHS to building residents.
The results showed three drinking fountains in the building had detectable levels of lead. The highest level of lead detected was 6.4 parts per billon (ppb). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires public water systems to take action to reduce lead levels at 15 ppb, but the university has previously said it is “taking action for any measurable lead.”
Fixtures where lead was detected “will be removed from service and further investigation into the cause will occur,” the Friday message from EHS to Spencer residents said.
“For buildings where drinking fountains are being replaced, water coolers will be provided in buildings where out-of-service drinking fountains are the only accessible drinking fixtures,” UNC media relations manager Erin Spandorf told The N&O in an email Monday.
On Oct. 5, according to an email Mitchell provided to The N&O, Carolina Housing informed building residents that EHS would test the in-room sinks beginning on Oct. 10 “out of an abundance of caution.” In the department’s Friday message to building residents, EHS said it was “still waiting on results for the individual sinks in each room,” and that the department would “update” residents with results “once received.”
EHS says the turnaround on test results is about five to seven days. During the time that testing is performed, and while the results are processed, the tested fixtures are unavailable for use.
Spandorf said buildings with “all drinking fountains offline” during water testing “receive a water cooler as an alternate water source.”
While the in-room sink test results are pending, Spencer residents were encouraged to instead use “the first-floor water filler in your residence hall which has a lead filter installed on it,” or sinks in the building’s communal bathrooms, according to an email from Carolina Housing. Mitchell said his resident advisor has also provided students with plastic water bottles during testing and while they await results.
Mitchell told The N&O he expects the in-room test results to be released sometime this week — though even after that, he said, students’ concerns about lead may last.
“I think a lot of people don’t feel safe using the facilities here,” Mitchell said.
Lead testing ongoing; health testing available on campus
The university is currently in the second of three phases for lead testing, which targets water fixtures in buildings that were built in or prior to 1930. The third phase will target buildings that were built in or prior to 1990.
Lead pipes are more likely to be found in buildings built before 1986, according to the EPA.
An email from Carolina Housing provided to The N&O by Mitchell says there are 27 residence halls that are included in the second and third phases of the EHS testing plan.
The phased approach to testing “is intended to find the fixtures that have the highest likelihood of containing lead first to mitigate the potentially highest health risks as quickly as possible,” Spandorf said.
Lead, even at low levels of exposure and ingestion, is known to cause adverse health effects, especially in children and pregnant women. In adults, the EPA says, lead exposure can lead to cardiovascular effects, increased blood pressure, hypertension, decreased kidney function and reproductive problems in both men and women.
The university previously said it “has health testing for lead available to all UNC-Chapel Hill faculty, staff and students who work or study in the affected buildings.” The testing is being made available at no charge to students, post-doctoral fellows, faculty or staff, a previous update from EHS said.
To access health testing, students and post-doctoral fellows are instructed to contact UNC Campus Health at 919-966-2281. Appointments are generally available within one to two days, with test results being available in students’ Healthy Heels portals around two to three days after the test is performed, an EHS dashboard on the issue says.
Faculty and staff seeking health testing should contact the University Employee Occupational Health Clinic by phone at 919-966-9119. Appointments are generally available within two to three days, and test results have a turnaround time of two to three days, the dashboard says.
Non-student and non-employee community members and visitors who have health concerns are instructed to consult with their physicians.
Additional information from EHS about health testing and the department’s ongoing testing can be found at ehs.unc.edu/topics/campus-drinking-water.
This story was originally published October 17, 2022 at 4:01 PM.
