Groundwater pollution lingers at landfill near S.C. mountain - Kansas City Star
By SAMMY FRETWELL
McClatchy Newspapers
McClatchy Newspapers
Updated: 2011-09-18T01:55:36Z
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Groundwater at a large landfill in lower Richland County, S.C., continues to show signs of harmful pollution, despite more than a decade of cleanup efforts.
While contamination levels are dropping in many groundwater samples at the Northeast Landfill, pollution hot spots persist at the 23-year-old disposal site a mile from Cook's Mountain near Eastover, S.C., state records show.
Toxic materials, known as volatile organic compounds, showed up in four on-site monitoring wells late last year and earlier this year, according to a June 30 consulting report filed with the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
One of the monitoring wells near the center of the landfill registered levels of trichloroethylene exceeding state safe drinking water standards, records show. The state standard is 5 parts per billion; the well registered levels exceeding 7 parts per billion in late 2010 and again in early 2011, the consulting report says.
Trichloroethylene, or TCE, is a colorless liquid that can cause liver damage, heart problems and nausea in people who drink substantial quantities. The material historically has been used as a solvent and is a relatively common groundwater pollutant.
Benzene, also believed to cause cancer, was found in the well at levels just below the safe drinking water standard in 2011, records show.
DHEC has not found private wells near the site to be contaminated, records show. Tests conducted at two private wells in the old McGraw community last year showed no signs of unsafe pollution levels and groundwater appears to be flowing in a different direction, DHEC told residents.
But some people worry that pollution could eventually affect private wells or the nearby Wateree River and its tributaries.
That's of particular concern to some folks, since the landfill's operators want to keep the site from closing in 2019 as scheduled.
The local arm of national waste giant Republic Services, which runs the landfill, has asked Richland County to tear up an agreement that forces the shutdown. In exchange, landfill operators have promised the county millions of dollars in additional revenue. The landfill's owners also have a deal to buy Cook's Mountain from a private group and could make the mountain available to the county for public use.
"We really don't need another source of pollution cutting into the Wateree River or coming in contact with the Wateree River flood plain," said John Grego, a conservationist who has reviewed the landfill's pollution records at DHEC. "They continue to see concentrations of volatile organic compounds that exceed, in some cases, the (Environmental Protection Agency's) drinking water standard."
Grego, president of Friends of Congaree Swamp, said the Wateree River already is threatened by a landfill and coal waste ponds operated by SCE&G. Experts say it's important to keep groundwater clean, not only to protect private wells, but to prevent contamination from seeping into rivers and streams.
Grego's organization is an advocacy group for Congaree National Park, just a few miles downstream from both landfills. Grego said he personally opposes keeping the Northeast landfill open past its 2019 closure date.
"If the landfill is trying to make the case that they deserve to stay open for a longer time frame, arguing that this acceptable, that just doesn't resonate," Grego said.
Consultants for the site's operator say the Northeast Landfill is making progress to cleanse groundwater polluted beneath the disposal area. An April 2010 report by Lorris Environmental said a cleanup system installed in 2000 has helped reduce pollution levels in a number of test wells on the property.
"These positive effects should become further apparent as the system continues to operate," the company wrote in the report filed with DHEC.
The June 30 report by Herst and Associates agreed. The pollution control system, installed to extract contaminated landfill gases, was upgraded in 2009. That resulted in reduced concentrations of volatile organic compounds in 2010 and 2011, the Herst report said.
This indicates that the system "is having a positive influence on groundwater quality," the Herst report said.
DHEC records show that landfill gases are believed to be the cause of the contamination. Records also show that the groundwater pollution may have originated at the dump's oldest section. That area was not lined with material to prevent pollutants from seeping into groundwater, records show.
The Northeast Landfill's groundwater pollution dates back years. Some poisonous compounds have been found in groundwater samples since shortly after the site was permitted in 1988, DHEC records show. Others include arsenic and vinyl chloride. Arsenic levels exceeding the safe drinking water standard were found in 2010, although those levels were not detected in 2011, consultants say.
Unsafe levels of cadmium, a toxic metal, were discovered in one groundwater sample as far back as 1991, just three years after the site was permitted to open, according to a Nov. 14, 1991, letter to DHEC from Environmental Technology Engineering, a consulting group. The cadmium exceeded safe drinking water standards, the letter said.
Republic's landfill took in about 175,000 tons of waste in 2010, mostly from central South Carolina, but also some from North Carolina. The waste was mostly household garbage, but did include some industrial refuse and ash, state records show.
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