The Daily Tar Heel

Issue date: 4/22/08 Section: City

Media Credit: DTH/Cassie Butler Carl Purefoy, a resident of the Rogers-Eubanks community, uncovers the well in his front yard. He does not drink the well water because it is a rusty color. Many residents said they do not feel safe drinking their well water, even when contaminant tests turn out negative.

Multimedia: Rogers Road - A community in question

Residents of the Rogers-Eubanks community, who have lived next to the Orange County Landfill for 35 years, are concerned about their health.

And as the search for a waste-transfer station site continues, many are trying to clarify the impact the county's trash has had on the quality of their air and water.

Residents say they suffer from an array of health complications, from common colds to renal failure.

Now they're asking if fault lies with contaminants from the landfill that could be seeping into the groundwater and drifting into the air.

The rusted wells

Many residents said they do not feel safe drinking their well water, even when tests for contaminants turn out negative.

Gertrude Nunn, who lives up the street from a stagnant pool of brown liquid landfill waste, said she doubts the results of tests that repeatedly classify her water as potable.

"I don't have any contamination, so they say. But I don't feel safe using it," she said, adding that four nearby wells have been closed for health reasons.

Other residents said there's no question that something isn't quite right with their water.

Carl Purefoy said his well water swirled with an orange-tinged sediment, even after it was filtered.

"It was bad and rusted-looking. It had a smell to it," he said.

The same material coated his bathtub and cooking pans before he stopped using well water.

As of now, there are no documented cases of illness in the community directly linked to the landfill.

But this does not rule out well water contamination.

Gayle Wilson, director of the Orange County Solid Waste Management Department, said that when the landfill was constructed, many of the safety regulations in place today were not yet developed.

For example, the original landfill had no lining to stop liquids from soaking into the ground.

Chris Heaney is an epidemiology doctoral candidate at UNC. He and his colleagues are comparing the results of private-well testing with tests on the landfill's monitor wells.

If the analysis, expected to be done by semester's end, shows similar chemicals in both, residents will have evidence that contaminants in their water came from the landfill.

Many possible contaminants pose long-term risks, such as to the elderly or those with health problems.

Heaney said certain organic, metallic or microbial compounds could be cancerous. Some pathogens could also cause long-term gastrointestinal problems.

The cost of caution

But being careful can be expensive.

For those without public water, Rachel Monschein, a laboratory supervisor at an Orange Water and Sewer Authority treatment plant, said frequent testing is wise.

"I'd probably have it tested annually for inorganic chemicals and volatile organic chemicals, if you can afford it," she said.

Many residents can't.

To use public water, they have to pay a tap-on fee and build pipes to connect to the main lines. Heaney said this could cost from $1,000 to $10,000, a price many can't afford.

And the community's concern is not unfounded.

Purefoy, who lost his wife to cancer, said he still wonders whether contaminants from the landfill provoked her disease.

A 1980s study found that men living near a landfill in Montreal were at a higher risk for pancreas, liver and prostate cancer.

The Trecatti landfill in the U.K. was associated with an increase in congenital malformations.

Residents said that regardless of precautions, the proximity of the landfill operation still worries them.

Orange County Board of Commissioners Chairman Barry Jacobs summed up the issue:

"You've got to think that when things smell bad and it's hot and there are vultures hanging around and trucks with their exhaust going through your neighborhood and stuff leaking into the ground, that it can't be the best thing for your health."

A dead odor

Nunn lives across the road from the Orange County landfill. Even her car absorbs the pungent stench.

Steve Wing, a professor in the School of Public Health, has studied the effects of odors on N.C. communities for years.

He stressed the psychological and physiological problems they can cause.

"It's not just good odors that cause physiological responses. Bad odors can, too," he said.

There is a definite smell around the Rogers-Eubanks community that intensifies in the evening - a "unique smell," Jacobs said.

These odors can be emotionally damaging, especially when they cling to clothes or linger around homes.

"If you can't invite family and friends over for a cookout because it smells bad, this is terribly embarrassing to people," Wing said.

Heavy landfill equipment also stirs up biological compounds that can lead to respiratory diseases.

The Trecatti landfill study found that asthma cases increased with a peak in odor complaints.

Other volatile organic compounds like hydrogen sulfide, the sulfuric rotten-eggs smell, can be dangerous in high concentrations over extended periods.

At this point, Nunn said she is tired of the landfill. And the smell is one of the hardest parts.

"It's sort of a pungent smell," she said. "Just wait till summer; it's a dead odor."



Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools