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GATESVILLE – There are numerous options for Gates County local government officials to study in regards to lowering the high levels of fluoride in the county’s public water system.

But what will work best and for what amount of money remain as the current hurdles that must first be addressed.

The county commissioners addressed the fluoride issue again at their meeting here Monday night (Jan. 27). There, vital input came from Green Engineering, a firm under contract with the county.

“We are looking at a slow, incremental process, testing water in other parts of the county through private irrigation wells owed by local farmers as well as testing two wells formerly operated by the Town of Gatesville that are no longer in use,” said County Manager Scott Sauer at the outset of the discussion that centers on a report in August of last year that showed the Gates County water system with the sixth highest level of fluoride nationally and #1 in the state of North Carolina.

“We will put Green Engineering to work looking at different strategies of reducing the high levels of fluoride,” Sauer continued. “We may find a water source at a deeper aquifers where we won’t have to remove fluoride. It looks like our region is has an abundance of fluoride in the water.”

Commissioner Dave Forsythe talked about the “hit-or-miss” aspect of investing money to dig test wells that may or may not locate a suitable water supply that doesn’t contain high levels of fluoride. He talked about a possible option of a installing a reverse osmosis system that removes fluoride.

Rodney Tart, a representative from Green Engineering, said it’s not crystal clear at this point regarding the test wells.

“The county needs two new wells. We need hydrological data of where the put them,” he said.

Tart added that the county is not currently in violation of the EPA’s drinking water standard. That level, he said, is 4 parts per million (four pounds of fluoride in four million gallons of water). Gates County’s water system, in its distribution line, is in the 3.0 parts per million range.

However, Tart pointed out that the NC Department of Environmental Quality currently recommends a fluoride level in drinking water of no higher than 0.8 parts per million.

“You need to choose the right technology to do that,” he said.

Among the options, other than finding a new deep well where zero fluoride is present, is a “packer” test that isolates well water at certain depths where samples can be drawn to see if fluoride levels are higher or lower.

Tart noted the drawback in using that technology is the well loses overall capacity.

Available alternatives include using water from the Chowan River, which would involve the expensive construction of a treatment plant; combinations of low and high ground water fluoride with blending; water from deeper aquifers where lower concentrations of fluoride may possibly exist; sodium alumina technology, activated carbon contactors with blending, and reserve osmosis filtration with blending.

The commissioners took no action on any option.

A national toxicology study released Aug. 21 2024 regarding high levels of fluoride in public water systems across the United States, including Gates County, could cause lower IQ in children. That study encompassed 2017-2019.

The next day, State Senator Bobby Hanig called Sauer about the fluoride report. That prompted Gates County Public Works Director Brad Arnold to launch a plan to learn more about the issue and what options may be available. He accelerated water quality sampling protocols of all three county-owned wells and the blended distribution line leaving the water treatment plant. That effort also involved the Albemarle Regional Health System.

Well #1, which tested for the highest levels of fluoride, was immediately taken offline and remains that way. The county’s public water supply is currently handled by two wells.

At the Sept. 18, 2024 meeting of the board of commissioners, there was discussion regarding the possibility of the county providing bottled water to those impacted the most by high levels of fluoride: children, ages eight years and younger and pregnant women.

Ten days later, Hurricane Helene caused a disruption in the supply chain of bottled water.

“We backed away from our bottled water distribution plan at that time,” Sauer recalled.

At the same meeting, the county prepared a letter seeking state assistance regarding the fluoride issue. That assistance included the installation of test wells, water quality analysis, and help the county with determining where to place new water supply wells. The cost of two of those new wells is already covered as part of the $10 million state appropriation the county received from the state budget two years ago.

The county requested a special state appropriation of $750,000 to construct six test wells plus an evaluation study of the water from those wells.

In the meantime, the county considered other options, to include using its final $200,000 of American Rescue Plan dollars for more frequent water sampling.

In 1976, a study by the NC Department of Commerce noted that water from two aquifers, particularly in the vicinity of Gatesville and Sunbury, contained excessive amounts of fluoride, as much as 6 to 8 parts per million. This study pre-dates the Town of Gatesville water system and the Gates County water system.

The county’s water system initially used a fluoride filter and fluoride removal system, until it was taken offline in 1990.