Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Arsenic-tainted residential wells in Florida

July 8, 2007 - PRING LAKE - Nobody disputes certain facts about arsenic, said Renee Holcomb, who lives on Batten Road in Spring Lake.

It is a toxic metal that can occur naturally in the soil. Farmers once sprayed it in orange groves to kill fungi and nematodes. Ranchers throughout Florida regularly filled 3, 400 "dipping vats" with arsenic solution to kill ticks on cattle.

"Arsenic is everywhere," Holcomb said.

Though the state Department of Environmental Protection does not agree with this last statement, a recent round of testing has found 12 contaminated wells, many of them near the intersection of Batten and Powell roads.

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