Customers of West Cumberland Utility District received a notification recently of asbestos detected in their water supply. This has alarmed several residents so we called the District to ask about the letter.  We were told they are required to test the water supply once every nine years.  When they did the test recently there were trace amounts of asbestos in the sample which was above State allowable limits.  However, when they tested again, there were no trace amounts of asbestos in the sample. The source of the asbestos is very old water lines made from concrete embedded with asbestos.  We were told the contaminants were not in the main trunk but in ‘lateral lines only’.

There are plans to replace the AC (asbestos cement) lines with funding from the county and testing of the water will become quarterly from now on due to the asbestos discovery. We were also told there isn’t a big danger in drinking the water with the very minute amount of asbestos.  At worst, we were told, is that if someone drank water with minute amounts of asbestos in the water for several years they may develop benign intestinal polyps – noncancerous.