Staff report

The Anson County water connection to Richmond County has been shut down until further notice, Richmond County Manager Jim Haynes said.

Last week Anson County through its testing discovered contamination in its water supply.

“Once Anson County notified us Friday, we made sure we turned off the connection with our system,” Haynes said.

“In short, our system is not affected,” he said.

Immediately upon being notified, Haynes said tests were run throughout the system in Richmond County.

“These tests began to come back clean on Friday, and by Sunday we had a clean bill of health for our water system,” Haynes said.

Contamination was discovered in Anson County during its water department’s routine testing.

“It turns out, someone had an illegal connection to the system without proper backflow prevention,” he said. “This is another reason illegal use from a fire hydrant is taken seriously.”

Haynes said the state of North Carolina coordinates public notices in this type of event, and based on Richmond County testing and results no notices were required or authorized for the county.

At the time of the incident, B.K. Jones, Richmond County director of community services, said the county was not pulling any water from the Anson County water system.

He said the positive samples of contamination were taken in the northwest corner of Anson County near Burnsville. That area’s system was isolated from the rest of the county until the situation was resolved.

About 300 customers were affected.