CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — UNC-Chapel Hill school leaders are responding to growing concerns of lead levels in water fixtures across campus buildings.

What You Need To Know

  • UNC-Chapel Hill leaders say water on campus is OK to drink

  • Data shows over 100 buildings with levels of lead in water

  • The school says if lead is found in water, the fixture will be taken away for repair; clean water will be supplied until then

A few buildings were affected in summer, but that number has swelled to over 100.

“The water on campus is safe. I will go as far as saying that,” said Vice Chancellor for Institutional Integrity and Risk Management George Battle.

Battle is promising students it’s OK to drink campus water.

“Those places where we are testing, those fixtures have been taken offline during the pendency of the testing, and water is supplied and if there’s lead found. Water will be continued to be supplied until that fixture is repaired or replaced,” he said.

This academic year, Battle’s top focus has been on the school’s water.

Over 120 buildings, most of them on the main campus, have detectable levels of lead. Over 20 buildings exceeded the EPA acceptable amount of lead of 15 parts per billion.

“EPA regulations apply to water systems, not the universities like ours. There are no regulations that apply there, but we are using those EPA regulations as a guide in our work,” Battle said.

Rebecca Fry, a professor at the UNC Gilling School of Public Health, said, “There’s no safe level of lead from a toxicology standpoint.” 

Her studies focus on understanding effects of toxic metals related to health complications. She’s played a critical part in helping to coordinate student blood level testing.

“If someone was concerned that they have been exposed, they can have their blood level tested,” Fry said.

Fry says 154 students have been tested so far and all results have come back at or below the reference range for lead levels. No one has gotten sick.

But why did this happen in the first place?

“The sources of the exposure can be varied, from the fixtures to older pipes, and so part of the strategy in testing is to identify those sources,” Fry said.

The school is in Phase 4 of testing, which means every building built after 1990 is being tested.

Battle says the work won’t stop here.

“We have committed to looking at every single building regardless of when it was built, regardless of where it is, regardless of who uses it on campus, every single building that we control to make sure there’s no lead,” Battle said.

Battle says the university is committed to regular testing of water fixtures so that they can always be aware of the conditions of the water and the fixtures on campus.

Clarification: This article was updated to state the buildings being tested in Phase 4 were constructed after 1990.