In western North Carolina, thousands are facing bacteria-infested water wells

As Pat Mahaffey walks into her garage, she passes stacks of clothes, books and other items she was able to salvage after Helene tore through her corner of Ashe County. 

The insulation in the walls is exposed and rolled back like a curtain. In the center of the space, a dehumidifier hums as it works to rid the room of moisture. 

Once the insulation is dried and reset, Pat, who is 70 and her husband James, who is 79, will leave the small cabin outside of Lansing they’ve been staying in for the past few weeks and move back onto their property and into the garage in Creston, right near the border with Tennessee.

To make her home livable again, Mahaffey will need running water. Her private well, which has been working sporadically since the rain subsided, is likely contaminated. 

While she waits for test results and for the well to be fixed by plumbers from nearby Mountain City, Mahaffey wonders if she’ll be able to trust her water again. 

"I’ve never been through it, so I don’t know," Mahaffey says. "I know we’ll be taking baths and stuff you know, I want to get it tested again after a while."

Mahaffey is not alone. According to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, upwards of 300,000 North Carolinian's private wells were flooded, jostled in place until they fractured and filled with the contents of anything the storm surge had picked up, from septic systems to propane tanks. 

A 40-minute drive south of Creston, Steven Finch, the owner of AquaTech Service & Consulting, a Boone-based water testing and filtration business has begun testing private wells as customers return to their homes and try to resume their lives. 

Signs of contamination

Finch says of about 20 tests he’s done since Helene, 14 of them were positive for coliform bacteria.

He explained that while mostly harmless to humans, coliform serves as an indicator that a well system has been breached and could host other contaminants. 

In that same batch of tests, Finch also found two positives for E. coli, which is directly tied to the presence of human or animal fecal matter in a well, something that was likely caused by the flooding.
 
He says even a small opening, like a release vent on a wellhead, could become an entry point for contaminated floodwater.
 
"Water can just come and go right down in the well, in which the pump is down there," Finch says. "Also there could just be physical damage. I’ve had reports of people that have actually had the well seals just ripped off."  

Finch adds that even for wells that are not contaminated, the presence of dirt and other minuscule particles in the flood-agitated groundwater can still put wear and tear on pipes and fixtures. 

Like water that runs down the road after it rains, packed with oil, gasoline and other materials, Finch says flooding can loosen whatever chemicals were stuck on the top layers of soil, especially for people who live near rivers and creeks. 

"If you’re within a hundred foot of a river, all that water rose 20 foot, your well is normally not seeing that level of permeable movement into the well through that permeable material groundwater so you’re grabbing zones of material that have been locked up in soil for many many years," Finch says. 

Finch is also working to get his water laboratory state-certified for testing drinking water.

This would allow residents in his service area seeking help from the state in getting their water treated to go directly to Finch, rather than have to drive or mail their water to a certified lab as far away as Charlotte.

Thousands at risk

Dr. Zack Moore, an epidemiologist with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, says there will be plenty of testing and sanitizing to do. 

According to him, the chance of contamination after a flood is so great, the state recommends well-owners decontaminate their well before even getting it tested as the results would reveal what the state already knows to be true. 

Moore emphasized the pressing nature of the situation. 

"Private wells that have been damaged or submerged because of Helene is a huge public health issue," Moore says. "It’s not an impending issue, it’s a current issue and it’s only gonna become worse as time goes on."

As of October 22, the state has distributed over 6,500 water sample collection kits to affected counties. 

In the long run, Moore is worried about Helene’s impact on water infrastructure. In the coming days, however, he and the state just want to make sure people don’t drink contaminated water. 

"Short-term, we’re most focused on bacterial contamination, making sure that people are disinfecting appropriately so that they can not run the risk of diarrheal or gastrointestinal illness when they start using their wells again," Moore says. 

Not enough help

Back in Creston, Pat Mahaffey isn’t concerned with the technical aspects of well infrastructure. 

Like many of her neighbors, she wants clean water, but her list of immediate concerns is long. 

The flooding lifted up parts of her driveway and warped the house’s foundation. 

A small barn and shed in her backyard were nearly destroyed by a rockslide and their 500-gallon propane tank, which they used to heat their home, was picked up by the storm surge and destroyed as it rolled down the road. 

She recently heard back from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which, after visiting her home and evaluating the damage, offered her a total of $3,750 dollars. 

As the news cycle churns and attention drifts, Mahaffey worries her and her neighbors' struggle will never be seen. 

"I’m just not sure that everybody realizes what’s really happened right here in this little community," Mahaffey says as she holds back tears. 
 

Santiago Ochoa covers healthcare for WFDD in partnership with Report For America. Follow him on X and Instagram: @santi8a98