UPDATE MAY 14 2024: “These actions are vital: If you don’t have clean drinking water, nothing else matters.” – NC Environmental Secretary Elizabeth Biser. THANK YOU, Carol Brooks and Jamestown News/YesWeekly for the great report in today’s edition:
NOTE: The EPA’s “PUBLIC NOTIFICATION RULE requires that PWSs (Public Water Systems) notify their customers that the UCMR results (PFAS test results) are available no later than 12 months after they are known [40 CFR 141.207]: https://www.epa.gov/dwucmr/reporting-requirements-fifth-unregulated-contaminant-monitoring-rule-ucmr-5
UPDATE MAY 8 2024: A story about the May 3rd incident in the Jamestown News incorrectly states that residents were “… handing out bottled water and flyers describing the water conditions in the town.”
The public citizens had not handed out any “flyers” nor any bottles of water when they were approached by two town employees and asked to leave. Their personal collapsible cooler – which they brought to the park along with folding chairs on a child’s wagon – remained zipped with approximately six dozen bottles of water purchased from Food Lion.
In a statement to the Jamestown News, the town manager spun his response as “town staff responding to reports of individuals handing out both flyers and a liquid with non-descript labels,” which is false, as nothing had been distributed nor handed out.
The town manager – a paid employee who is a resident of Rockingham County – further told the Jamestown News that the “(James)Town Parks & Recreation staff coordinate vendors and guests for the Music in the Park events and these are by invitation only.”
The “flyers” said nothing about Jamestown’s water quality. They were photocopies of an official May 1 Press Release distributed by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality announcing the publication of a 28-page study on 1,4-Dioxane in North Carolina, and the health effects on humans (1,4 Dioxane causes cancer and multiple health problems and can only be removed from water with a Reverse Osmosis filtration system).
The Press Release, marked for IMMEDIATE Release, is shown below, and states that North Carolina ranks number three in the USA for 1,4-Dioxane contamination. Guilford County ranks number one in the State of North Carolina for 1,4 Dioxane contamination.
Here’s a link to the NCDEQ’s digital version of the Press Release, which includes a link to the 28-page study. GO HERE for water sampling data that shows where some of the 1,4 Dioxane contamination in our Deep River/Randleman/PTRWA water supply is coming from.
The bottles of water, purchased at Food Lion, were wrapped in paper labels with Jamestown United and The Jamestowner branding. Both groups are nonprofit community groups. The Jamestowner is a 501(c)3 charitable organization staffed by volunteers. Other nonprofit groups were representing their organizations at the event, and at least one had set up a table with literature and sodas for sale.
This isn’t the first time Jamestown residents have been subject to pushback by Jamestown employees and council members when trying to bring this area’s water contamination issues out into the open.
In February, 2023, while researching Watershed Regulations that should have affected the housing density of the 1,500-home D.R. Horton Development and 90-home Windsor Homes Development (both now underway in Jamestown), residents found water violations at Eastside WWTP including a 276-ppb Dioxane spike and a 1,330 spill of sodium hypochlorite into Deep River.
After reporting their findings here and in a formal release on Issuewire, a Jamestown councilman joined the town manager in a misinformation campaign that downplayed the health effects of forever chemicals and attempted to discredit the residents. The councilman was defeated when he ran for reelection last fall.
1,4 Dioxane isn’t the only chemical that’s contaminating Jamestown’s drinking water. Last year, three rounds of required (and new) EPA test sampling of Jamestown’s water system found levels of PFAS (a different group of chemicals) exceeded the new federal limit of 4 parts per trillion. Details on Jamestown’s PFAS tests are HERE.
On May 2, 2024, North Carolina Environmental Secretary Elizabeth Biser released a public statement correcting misinformation circulating among corporate members of the NC Chamber of Commerce who are lobbying the Environmental Management Commission to delay action on the state’s implementation of new PFAS limits (the states regulate the PFAS coming OUT of the company, landfill and manufacturing factility; the feds regulate PFAS coming OUT of the water treatment plants en route to our homes). Biser asked for urgent action in North Carolina’s fight against PFAS contamination in our drinking water.
ORIGINAL POST MAY 4, 2024: In 2008, the Town of Jamestown, NC received a PARTF (Parks and Recreation Trust Fund) grant from the State of North Carolina for property acquisition at Wrenn Miller Park in the amount of $55,863. It received another PARTF grant for Wrenn Miller Park in 2012 for $132,688.
PARTF grants are administered by the NC Division of Parks & Recreation for the acquisition and/or development of parks and recreation land and projects TO SERVE THE GENERAL PUBLIC, for use by the public.
The “Eligibility Requirements” state that property acquired with PARTF funds (like Wrenn Miller Park) must be DEDICATED FOREVER FOR PUBLIC RECREATIONAL USE (07 NCAC 13K .0109).
The May 1st press release is below:
The ladies were told that handing out free bottles of water would “hurt vendor sales.” This particular event is for families, it’s free to the public, and attendees are allowed to bring their own food and drink; a few food trucks set up on the perimeter of the property.
When one of the women asks, “What are we doing wrong?” Johnson responds by saying, “I’ve asked you once.” She replies, “You didn’t explain why we can’t be here.” Johnson says “I don’t owe you an explanation … this is our event, you did not ask permission to be here.”
On its website, the NC Division of Parks and Recreation makes clear the division’s commitment to DIversity Equity Inclusion and Access, with one paragraph stating: “Inclusion is acknowledging, welcoming, respecting, supporting, and valuing the authentic participation of any individual or group. It is creating an environment that engages multiple perspectives, differing ideas, and individuals from different backgrounds, while providing a sense of belonging.”
Several other local organizations and nonprofits were on site handing out information, flyers and items such as sodas. The Jamestowner is an all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization, registered with the State of North Carolina, solely focused on providing facts and data on issues that are greatly impacting the health, welfare and environment of Randleman Watershed residents and their progeny.
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