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PTRWA (Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority), in Randolph County, treats, sells and serves finished drinking water from Deep River/Randleman Lake to hundreds of thousands of metered connections in Greensboro, High Point, Randleman, Archdale & Jamestown. Greensboro is the biggest customer. The annual sales and purchases by these cities and towns is recorded here (note the pull down year-selection menu in the upper right corner).
This estimate is broad because little is shared with the public about where our drinking water is routed from, how it’s treated, and the contaminants that are flowing into it from industrial dischargers, landfills, and contaminated Brownfields and hazardous sites.
In its permitting and reporting documentation, PTRWA states it has “no customers” because no population is “directly” served by PTRWA. PTRWA’s “partners” are the governments of Greensboro, High Point, Jamestown, Archdale and Randleman. Here is the PTRWA website.
Because PTRWA’s drinking water is contaminated with PFAS and 1,4-Dioxane, PTRWA is shopping for a $120 million reverse osmosis system for its entire treatment plant. They recently joined a lawsuit against the manufacturers of PFAS.
In the meantime, our local governments keep raising OUR property taxes and water fees to pay for “upgrades,” “repairs,” and “expansions” at PTRWA, instead of holding the industrial dischargers, manufacturers, plastics/polymer producers, and landfills that contaminated Deep River and our water supply streams for decades accountable – a power that is given to citizens and municipalities in the Clean Water Act.
Two of the biggest and most well-known contaminated of Deep River and Randleman Lake are Seaboard Chemical Dump (for years it was North Carolina’s only Hazardous Waste site), an abandoned High Point Landfill, and High Point’s Eastside Wastewater Plant, all three of which sit on Deep River about 5 miles upstream from Randleman Lake.
This is a screenshot from PTRWA’s March 2025 directors’ meeting:
The local playbook is: DOWNPLAY the severity, DISTRACT with misinformation, DELAY action, DIMINISH the NCDEQ’s abilities; and RUSH to raze, develop and destroy before the proposed (stricter) federal water quality regs take effect.
One best way to illustrate it is to take Pat Kimbrough’s article in today’s edition of the High Point Enterprise, one paragraph at a time. I mean no offense to Kimbrough – the PFAS, water quality and municipal water interconnections are extremely murky and very difficult to piece together, especially when the local authorities aren’t giving you the full story. But since this is all I’ve been reading and researching for the past two and half years, I’m going to dive in and swim around for a few minutes.
Let’s start with the second paragraph: “… [PTRWA] is planning an $85 million upgrade of its plant to filter out PFAS compounds…”
Fact: In September 2023, the City of High Point and PTRWA submitted four applications to the State of North Carolina for this specific project, in the amounts of $16,150,000 (High Point) and $120,000,000, (PTRWA) for a reverse osmosis system.
Continuing, “… to filter out compounds from the Randleman Regional Reservoir so that its finished water is compliant with new federal limits.”
True, and here’s more: Among local drinking water reservoirs and suppliers, PTRWA/Randleman Lake has the highest levels of 1,4 Dioxane and PFAS. Guilford County has the highest levels of 1,4-Dioxane in the state, and North Carolina has the third highest levels of PFAS and 1,4-Dioxane in the entire country. It’s not new or emerging. It’s been in our water system for decades.
In 2022, PFPrA was found in High Point City Lake at levels ranging from 2.23 PPT to 17.1 PPT, and in PTRWA/Randleman Lake at levels of 6.61 PPT to 9.83 PPT. The NCDEQ says PFPrA is specific to Chemours’ Fayetteville Works facility, which is more than 100 miles DOWNSTREAM of High Point City Lake and PTRWA/Randleman Lake. An NCDEQ scientist said it as recently as October 2023 in THIS COASTAL REVIEW ARTICLE, even though High Point’s 4th quarter 2022 PFAS test results (and probably PTRWA’s as well) are the NCDEQ’s own data.
Third paragraph: “… the city must participate in the treatment expansion because High Point owns 19% of the plant and the city’s portion of the upgrade will cost $16.1 million.”
Late last year, North Carolina was awarded $2.3 BILLION for infrastructure projects, specifically those related to WATER and SEWER. The general assembly divvied up the proceeds and the NC Department of Environmental Quality is overseeing the roll-out. Greensboro got $7 million. Archdale got $7 million. Randolph County got $85 million. The City of Randleman got $5.15 million.
Here’s who got nothing: High Point, Jamestown, and PTRWA. Why? Greg Flory, PTRWA’s executive director, said this: “The 2 Billion dollars you are referencing was not given to the municipalities through any sort of grant process, it was allocated to the localities through legislative lobbying and DEQ … While legislative representatives were made aware of PTRWA’s needs, funds were not allocated to our projects, I would encourage you to stress your funding concerns with your legislative representatives.”
Fourth paragraph: “PFAS are potentially harmful compounds used in firefighting foam and many consumer products (etc)…”
Yes, but THIS is why there are so many PFAS in Guilford County and High Point’s surface waters, groundwater and drinking water: For the better part of a century, Deep River has been the designated “WASTE STREAM” for industrial polluters, chemical companies, plastics/polymer companies, landfill operators, the tank farm, fire-fighting foam, bus/auto manufacturers, furniture manufacturers and textile mills.
The NC Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) knew this and gave warning. Back in 1997, when the proposal to dam Deep River to create a drinking water reservoir was proposed, NCDEQ staff members stated publicly that making Deep River a drinking water supply VIOLATED water quality standards, and they said it on the record so that the NCDEQ wouldn’t be “blamed” for it, nor asked to “fix it once it is impounded.”
Yes, those are the actual words of NCDEQ staff members.
Of 3,500 water systems tested nation wide by the EPA so far, High Point and Greensboro are two of only eleven systems that have tested positive for TEN different PFAS compounds. High Point has PFOA, PFOS, PFHxA, PFPeA, PFHxS, PFBS, PFBA, PFHpA, PFPrA and PFNA. Greensboro has PFOA, PFOS, PFHxA, PFPeA, PFHxS, PFBS, PFBA, PFHpA, PFPrA and 6:2 FTS. PTRWA’s water has tested positive for NINE.
Follow the links throughout this article to the state laserfiche documents and read for yourself. The biggest and most disturbing message is “DEEP RIVER was NEVER supposed to become a DRINKING WATER SOURCE; it’s an industrial WASTE STREAM.” Now, we’re expected to drink it, bathe in it, wash our clothes in it, breathe the shower steam, and water our plants with it.
Paragraph five: “The city [of High Point] gets most of its water from Oak Hollow and City lakes but it also is allocated 2.28 million gallons a day from the [PTRWA] reservoir.”
Not quite. High Point’s water intake is as follows: 11.7237 million gallons per day (MGD) from High Point City Lake, plus 0.1234 MGD from Oak Hollow Lake. (source: NC Division of Water Resources). Like Jamestown, High Point is obligated to purchase a set amount every year – 2.86 MGD. But High Point doesn’t need PTRWA’s water because it has its own City Lake. So High Point sells its PTRWA water to Jamestown and Archdale:
Jamestown doesn’t need additional water, either, but it’s bound by some kind of expensive contract with PTRWA and High Point. According to its Local Water Supply Planning reports, Jamestown purchases 1.775 MGD water a year (.775 MGD from PTRWA plus 1.0 MGD from High Point), but uses LESS THAN A THIRD OF WHAT IT buys.
Jamestown claims it needs millions of dollars for capital water projects due to an urgent need for expansion, yet Jamestown’s own projections show the town currently has access to more water than it will need through at least the year 2070.
From the looks of today’s article in the High Point Enterprise, the City of High Point is trying to spin a similar tale.
Paragraph six: “It’s one of six members of the water authority, along with Greensboro, Randleman, Randolph County, Archdale and Jamestown.”
I addressed this in the opening paragraph. PTRWA says it has “NO customers” – until it needs $120 million for a reverse osmosis system.
Paragraph seven: “…tests of finished city drinking water have found PFAS levels above the new federal limits.”
Yes, BUT: ALL of High Point’s PFAS test results came from High Point City Lake, probably because 81% of High Point’s water “purchase” is from its own City Lake. High Point is stuck in a PTRWA contract (through the year 2057) to pay PTRWA for 2.86 MGD of water a year, but High Point sells most of its PTRWA water to Jamestown and Archdale. SO, High Point, why aren’t you asking your residents for $16 million to clean up your own drinking water supply instead of PTRWA’s?
Paragraph eight: “The city’s Ward Water Treatment Plant is twice as large as [PTRWA’s], which means it would cost $170 million to treat PFAS.”
Paragraphs nine through five are the same stuff we’ve been hearing for three years in Jamestown about expansion costs, and the taxpayers’ duty to pay for the mess made by a lot of companies that still sit along Deep River, Richland Creek, Copper Branch, Reddicks Creek and Long Branch, discharging, polluting, contaminating and paying nothing for the cleanup.
Deep River is in HORRIBLE shape through no fault of ours. The new federal PFAS regulations also call for the SOURCE POLLUTERS to take fiscal responsibility for cleaning up their mess and fixing the damage they’ve done – NOT the TAXPAYERS. PFAS here is from plastics, vinyl, chemicals and paper manufacturing, way too many landfills, and firefighting foam from PTI airport.
1,4 Dioxane is coming from a number of High Point and Greensboro industries that leach into, or send stormwater and wastewater to Eastside WWTP, Richland Creek, Bull Run, and Deep River – which ends up in Randleman Lake and Reservoir. 1,4 Dioxane has been a huge problem in Deep River and Randleman Lake for DECADES. Read all about Seaboard Chemical Dump and its 1,4-Dioxane Tree Forest.
There are people here and in Raleigh who have been hoping you wouldn’t find out about this. They’re having workshops to talk about “FAST-TRACKING” development (sound familiar?) before the EPA regulations are put into place. They’re misclassifying our WATER SUPPLY STREAMS to avoid pollution load limits, monitoring, watershed protections and surface water testing. They’re spot-zoning to keep regulatory authority in a constant state of chaos, screwing up election districts, and misleading us with bad and nonexistent data to keep us swimming in very dark waters.
Talk to the EPA. Share your concerns or report a violation HERE.
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