Pesticide in Drinking Water

A pesticide contaminated a North Carolina water system in April, 1986, prompting the town to warn residents of 23 households not to drink the water. The residents in the affected area were supplied drinking water from a tank truck parked in the parking lot of a downtown office building until the condition could be cleared up. Residents complained of foul smelling water but there were no reports of illness from ingesting the water that had been contaminated with a pesticide containing chlordane and heptachlor.

Authorities stated that the problem occurred when a water main broke at the same time that a pest control service was filling a pesticide truck with water. The reduction in pressure caused the pesticide from inside the tank to be sucked into the building’s water main. The pesticide contaminated the potable water supply of the office building and neighborhood area.