By Becky Coffey, Harbor News Senior
Staff Writer:
WESTBROOK:
Neighbors of the
town’s bulky waste landfill came out in force to a recent Board of Selectmen’s
meeting demanding that town leaders comply with the state’s landfill closure
order and do the quarterly testing of their wells for lead and other contaminants.
They also urged the selectmen to ensure the town’s water testing laboratories
use consistent and state-authorized procedures for water sampling and analysis.
The meeting opened
with First Selectman Noel Bishop passing out a written chronology of events
surrounding the water testing of residential wells of 11 homes on Oakridge and
Brookwood drives. Five homes were cited in the state landfill closure order as
requiring additional testing but the selectmen added six more homes to the list
that were on those streets and could potentially have contaminants in their
water as well.
In the document, it
reads that Jonathan Goldman of the state Department of Environmental Protection
confirmed the town would have to continue to perform quarterly testing of wells
offsite “to establish more baseline data on all of the wells and that if any
well is determined to be polluted, the State DEP will determine if [potable]
water is necessary.”
Currently, the town
has seven monitoring wells on the landfill site from which quarterly samples
are taken: six are located in an area the town’s landfill consultant described
as “down-gradient” from the two streets and one he described as “up-gradient”
that’s located within a few feet of the property line between the landfill site
and the property of Nick D’Amico.
Two main issues were
pressed by the neighbors, many of whom have had one or more well samples that
have exceeded the state standard for lead in drinking water. They wanted first
to know how to get a permanent source of clean drinking water to their
neighborhood and second how to get professional help–specifically, the services
of a hydrogeologist–who could assess the adequacy of the onsite and offsite
well monitoring program.
“Our concern as
neighbors is to determine whether the [landfill] well leachate affects the
groundwater,” said one neighbor.
Nick D’Amico, who
has led the charge for the neighbors, expressed dismay about two recent
developments. First, the map the town recently sent to neighbors showing the
network of existing monitoring wells incorrectly located at least one of the
existing monitoring wells. Second, town building official Richard Leighton’s
letter to the second testing laboratory prescribed a different well sampling
procedure for the neighbors’ home wells from that used in previous tests.
D’Amico said he was concerned that the new firm’s water sample results could
not, therefore, be compared with the previous ones taken using a different
procedure that called for the water to run in each home for 15 minutes before
sampling.
Selectman Marie
Farrell told the residents that she is committed to a long-term solution that
would bring city water to these homes.
Selectman Jim
Crawford tempered this suggestion by saying the town does needs more data
before it can move forward–“We can’t go before the town without the facts.”
Approved by
unanimous vote of the selectmen was a motion to expand the well water testing
protocol to include testing for volatile organic compounds (VOCs). A second
motion committed the town leaders to pursue discussion about whether or not to
hire a hydrogeologist to investigate and assess the adequacy of the existing
monitoring well network.
Neighbors remain
concerned, however, that ongoing town well-water testing procedures still do
not fully comply with the state’s landfill closure authorization conditions. A
July 28, 2008, test of Environmental Consulting Laboratories from the wells
omitted several test parameters cited in the state’s order that required–for
example, testing for a metals profile from arsenic to zinc.
The selectmen made
no commitment at the meeting as to how or when the town might initiate action
to bring a utility water pipe to from McVeagh
Road to serve these homes.