North Carolina Town Utilizes Federal Funds To Manage PFAS Contamination
Grant through Bipartisan Infrastructure Law a “Game-Changer” for Maysville
FUNDING SOURCE
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
partner organization
Center for American Progress
In 2019, when North Carolina wells were required to be tested for the presence of PFAS, the acronym was so new that it was the first time Schumata Brown, Maysville Town Manager, had even heard of it. Even so, Schumata was sure the tests wouldn’t find any in the only well that provided water to Maysville, a rural community of fewer than 1,000 people where he lived and worked as town manager. Except the tests came back positive.
“It was tough,” said Brown of the findings. “The advisory rate was 70 parts per trillion. We were somewhere like 250 parts per trillion or some crazy number. For it to come back at those levels, it was really detrimental to us.”

PFAS are a group of long-lasting chemicals that break down slowly over time. They can be found in water, air, fish, and soil, and they’ve been known to negatively affect the health of humans and animals. Brown said town officials weren’t sure how the well became contaminated, since the town is not near industry or an airport, but the PFAS level prompted dramatic action.
“We made an immediate decision to shut down the only well in town. We were blessed to have a local agreement with the county to go on their water system,” said Brown.
With water availability secured, Brown and the Maysville town council worked with state lawmakers to tap into funds that would help with mitigation, repair and a solution that would provide additional back-up for the future. They’re using a $5 million grant, funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to support nine projects throughout the town.
A $1 million PFAS filtration system at the once-contaminated well is just one of these projects. Digging a second well is another, so the town will have a back-up to its current back-up should anything else go wrong in the future.
“That is huge for a town our size to have,” said Brown. “It’s a game-changer for Maysville, to be able to fix a lot of aging infrastructure that we would have never been able to fix. We definitely didn’t want to take out that type of loan.”

The grant will allow the town to ensure that safe, drinkable water is available to the hundreds of town residents who need it. Clean water, afterall, is a right.
“Without those funds, we would not be able to do this project, sadly,” said Brown. “Everyone has a right to clean, drinkable water. It’s about quality of life.”
The size of Maysville fosters an “everybody knows everybody” atmosphere. A small, family town, Maysville has a couple restaurants and no big box stores. Work is found in the school system, at a recycling facility, with the town, or at a nearby military base outside the town’s limits.
The PFAS challenge needed a solution that fostered confidence in town leadership. The grant funding, gave town leaders a chance to respond appropriately and ease concerns. The well has been closed since 2019 and is expected to be operational once again by mid-2024.
“Without those funds, small towns couldn’t exist or fix problems. We have some monumental problems. And we didn’t have a million bucks laying around,” said Brown. “What’s next, is we need to make sure the filters are always doing their job. Once they’re not we need to make sure maintenance is on it. It’s going to be an ongoing process.”
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commonly called the “Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL),” was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden on November 15, 2021. BIL contains tens of billions in federal funding for rural infrastructure, disaster assistance, high-speed internet, and more.