Badly tainted groundwater irks residents in Indiana

October 30, 2009 - Manganese, sulfur and iron in the groundwater have residents in the Prairie Creek Run neighborhood asking for a connection to Elkhart’s public system, according to an October 28 article in local newspaper The Elkhart Truth.

The square-mile neighborhood, referred to in the article as “an island with water problems,” was known for years as the lower income Sawmill District. The neighborhood is close to industrial activity to the north.

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The Hidden Truth on Hidden Lane in VA.

October 30, 2009- After numerous lawsuits and court proceedings filed year after year, the state revoked the landfill’s operating permit following a permanent injunction against the site. The landfill was ordered to be closed in October 1983, much to the delight of Broad Run Farms residents and county officials.

The series has explored the migration of methane gas into the CountrySide subdivision, as well as the groundwater contamination with trichloroethylene (TCE) in Broad Run Farms. It has noted how the contamination has gotten worse overtime, spreading to many of the private wells in the subdivision at concentrations significantly higher than the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) maximum contaminant level.

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DHEC to Discuss Water Quality of Fort Mill, SC Neighborhood

October 30, 2009- Residents of the Foxwood neighborhood will meet with state health officials Monday to talk about contaminants and water quality issues in the well system that serves their homes. About 250 homes in the subdivision are served by a private well system where two contaminants have been found, said Adam Myrick, a spokesman for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.

He said the contaminants have been present in the water since quarterly testing began there in 1990, but there have been some increases in those levels.

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Elmont, NY Gas Station Owner Charged With Ignoring Leak

October 30, 2009- The owner of an Elmont gas station is accused of environmental crimes for allegedly ignoring orders from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to repair a damaged underground tank found to be leaking petroleum into the soil and groundwater.

Nejdet Yetim, 45, of Patchogue, the owner of the Liberty gas station on Hempstead Turnpike, was arrested Thursday morning and charged with endangering public health, safety or the environment and knowingly violating a final administrative order.

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Tainted Wells Spur Home Value Worries In Stamford, CT

October 30, 2009- A North Stamford woman left an anonymous message on an Advocate phone saying the newspaper should stop writing about well-water contamination near the Scofieldtown Road landfill because it's making it difficult for her to sell her house. A real estate agent called asking for the list of streets where contaminated wells have been identified because he had a buyer who wanted to avoid those streets.

As city officials continue to test residential wells near the industrial landfill in Scofieldtown Park, the main issue, of course, is public health. So far, 25 wells on six streets have shown
unsafe levels of cancer-causing pesticides.

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Leaking Fuel Contaminates Chicago Neighborhood

October 27, 2009 - Fuel that leaked out of storage tanks and into the land of neighboring homes has some local residents outraged. They say no one is going to want to buy their homes now. They are worried about their investment and worried about their health.

Sometime before August 2001, for an unknown period of time, an unknown amount of oil loaded with toxic chemicals seeped from tanks and headed across the alley into yards, killing gardens and trees and causing an odor.

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Lawyers: Hayes-Sammons Plant in Texas caused woman's cancer

October 27, 2009 - From 1950 to 1967, The Hayes-Sammons plant in Mission, Texas operated a pesticide mixing plant, combining dozens of industrial-grade chemicals into their own special brands of bug-killing elixir.

Guadalupe Garza grew up in the neighborhood, and became the first of nearly 1,600 former Hayes-Sammons employees and nearby residents to take her toxic exposure case before a jury. Specifically, she alleges that three chemical compounds used at the plant - DDT, dieldrin and toxaphene - built up in her body over time and triggered the cancer she developed later in life.

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Old meth lab poisons dream home in Indiana

October 24, 2009 - The headaches, muscle aches and breathing problems began shortly after she moved in, but Julie McCoy Sabatino was slow to blame her house for making her sick.

She was shocked to realize she should: Methamphetamines had been produced in the house, just months before she bought it.

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Methane gas at nearby landfill concerns Santa Monica, California residents

October 24, 2009 - The Pico Neighborhood Association recently raised concerns about the possible dangers of placing the maintenance facility across from Stewart Street Park, which was built on top of a former landfill that releases low levels of methane gas.

"The mixture of methane ground contamination with high electrical voltage could trigger an explosion," Maria Loya, co-chair of the neighborhood organization, said. "This is a residential community with families where there's a park, where there's an elementary school close by.

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Saginaw, MI. Cleanup Deal's Outcome Could Affect Future Initiatives

October 23, 2009- Every spring, Dow Chemical sponsors a fishing tournament "celebrating all things walleye" on the wide, fast-moving river that flows past its sprawling world headquarters.

Signs warn anglers not to eat the fish, which are contaminated with high levels of cancer-causing dioxins the chemical giant dumped into the Tittabawassee River for most of the last century. Yet tournament organizers sell hats featuring the slogan "Dioxins My Ass."

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