NCD980602163_19821105_Warren County PCB Landfill_SERB C_Henderson Daily Dispatch - Traces of PCB Absent from Water at Landfill-OCR

., a .... • • I HENDERSON DAILY DISPATCH FRIDAY, ~OVEMBER 5, 1982 3 .Traces Of PCB Absent
t, From Wat.er-At L8ndfill
. . . '
BY BETSI SIMMONS .
. · StaffWriter
AFTON-State officials
said early today . that no
traces of PCB contamination
were found in samples taken
from water accumulated in
. the bottom of the Warren
County PCB landfill.
Some Warren County
residents and.others opposed
to the state's PCB storage
facility in Afton have voiced
concern over .the large
amounts of water contained
in the landfill after heavy
rains last week.
Four samples of the water
were· taken last weekend
from the leachate collection
system located at the bottom
of the landfill to determine
the degree of chemical
contamination, and final
results Thursday revealed
the water to be absolutely
harmless, according to Bill
Meyer, an environmental
engineer with the . state's
Solid and Hazardous Waste
Branch.
Minute traces of PCB,
averaging .025 parts per
million, were found in the
sediment of the samples only
. when they were shaken up,
· . Meyer added. But when the
. sediment was filtered from
. the · samples and the water
· tested, the chemical could
not be detected.
According to Bill Phillips,
assistant to the secretary of
Crime Control and Public
· Safety, for the contaminated ·
liquid to be classified as PCB
' waste by· the Environmental
Protection Agency, it must
contain 50 parts PCB per
mllllon.
· 1 Meyet said the test results
indicated that the toxic
. chemical binds to soil and
:__ can not move in ground
water.
"We have said this time and Jim Hunt and others were
time again. You jua~ can not · guilty of rac~m fo~ locating
force a soil particle through a the landfill m the
soil pore;'' he said. 1'Even if predominately black Afton
there were no liner s,stem at community. .
all there would still be · no "Our souls will not rest
PCB in the water."1 contented until the dump site
Meyer estimated/ there la has been removed from
one-half million gallo111 of Warren County and just
water in the Iandf~ due to poli~ies have been develol>f:d
rain; but the water ~ not free to dispose of toxic waste 10
· moving. The soil, he said, North Carolina that will
acts like a sponge, absorbing protect all people and the
any liquid. . . . · · · environment," White said.
"That landfill was bone -" , · · -· · --··
dry on Wednesday with
respect to free water in the
system," Meyer said. .
Area residents, however,
say they want permission to
monitor· the capping of the
facility to make sure the
state does not drain any
potentially dangerous water i' into nearby Bridle Creek.
President of the Warren
County Citize111 Concerned
About PCB, Ken Ferruccio,
said aerial photographs of
the site revealM that a
holding pond beside the
landfill ii full · of water and
also~ showed a pipe
protruding from the pond.
State officials, however,
say they have no intention of
pumping any water into
nearby creeks a, streams.
The holding pond is a
sedimentation /basin to
capture water external to the
landfill, Meyer_ 8'fd, and is
only designed to handle
uncontaminated water
rµnning off tbt*dflll.
"We are nof ailowing one
drop of that ~laminated
water out of the ~ndflll, ''. h!!
added. . . .
Meanwhile; at a Raleigh news conference Thursday
morning the Rev. Leon White
of the United •Church of
Christ's CommiBSion for
Racial Justice aid that Gov: ! ' . ,,._ ,.