MOORESVILLE (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Mooresville officials said they were ‘pleasantly surprised’ by water quality testing results after a sinkhole sent contaminants into a stream that feeds into Lake Norman.

A 40-foot-wide crater opened up off Highway 150 in the Tire Masters parking lot, and it forced the long-standing business to close in February.

‘From the beginning.’ Mooresville leaders address massive sinkhole repair plans

Environmental experts were concerned about coal ash leaking from the sinkhole into the water supply. Town leaders conducted a series of quality tests and hired an independent lab to also test water around the sinkhole and where the affected tributaries empty into the lake.

Mayor Chris Carney said they knew the drinking water supply was safe but did not know what to expect from toxin levels in the stream.

“They were surprisingly good. I mean, we fully expected kind of the worst,” Carney said.

Town leaders paid Pace Analytical to inspect the water quality. Their report shows the amounts of heavy metals and radioactive materials are both within the safe parameters outlined in state standards. More here.

Queen City News reached out to the company to discuss the findings but did not hear back.

Mooresville authorities said they have consistently monitored the area’s drinking water and it was not impacted.

“We never had anything that even began to make us believe our drinking water had been in any way because we test that, I mean, multiple times a day already. We weren’t seeing any kind of creep of anything that made us concerned that way,” Carney said. “It was more of just the idea of we just can’t allow a stream that enters the lake to have this kind of contamination in it. So, we’re happy to have gotten ahead of that.”

Officials said Lake Norman is safe for activities.

Investigators blame the ground collapse on a poorly installed storm water pipe from decades ago.

“A lot of people are looking to blame somebody other than that, and that really that’s just not true,” Carney said. “If this pipe had been installed correctly, we wouldn’t be sitting where we are right now.”

Carney said this is a one-time examination. He said they would be open to retesting the area if it became necessary.

“Our understanding is this is as intensive a test as we can get,” he said. We’re obviously going to test a little bit of groundwater to make sure that we’re not missing something from that.”

The mayor said his employees will now inspect more pipes, especially older facilities they did not install.

“The good news is this is one more lesson learned. Even stormwater pipes that are on private land, if it’s going to bleed into like a public water system, we need to go and inspect it too. We’re definitely taking notes and changing our policy because of it,” he said.

Carney said the town will purchase the property the sinkhole sits on and will start making repairs this summer. Duke Energy crews will begin cleaning remnants of the coal ash from the stream the week of May 20. Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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