By Brian Messenger
Staff writer
Tue, May 13 2008 The state has ordered additional tests on the scope and severity of arsenic contamination in water near the Ledge Road landfill. The tests will begin April 1 and conclude May 15, after 2008 Town Meeting, where town leaders expect to ask residents to appropriate $7.4 million, the additional amount the town says is required to recap the former town dump. Capping the landfill won't proceed until town environmental consultants determine the source and extent of arsenic found within nearby ground and surface water. The additional tests were ordered by the state Department of Environmental Protection. A public meeting on the landfill was held earlier this month. "It's all part of how we're going to close the landfill," said Town Manager Buzz Stapczynski. "As expected, they want more research done on it. Obviously, we're going to do that. It's all part of what it takes to get an acceptable closure plan together." Residents first approved planning money to close the landfill at Town Meeting in both 1997 and 1998. Another $2.2 million was appropriated in 1999 for construction work, though no recapping has taken place. The Ledge Road landfill parcel lies west of Ledge Road and is less than a third of a mile from the intersection of Interstate 93 and Route 495. Residential properties now abut the site to the south and east and a wetland system that contributes to Fish Brook, a town drinking water source, also lies to the west. Fish Brook feeds into Haggetts Pond, where the town's water treatment plant gets its water. In the fall, town consultants took 47 sediment samples from town-owned land adjacent to the landfill and on a privately-owned Chandler Road farm. According to the state, those results were consistent with samples taken in 2005 that revealed arsenic levels higher than the state's maximum allowable contaminate level in groundwater and surface water samples. In 2005 arsenic was found up to 200 feet downstream of the landfill, according to the state. One of the more recent sediment samples, however, taken approximately 480 feet west of the landfill, contained even higher levels of arsenic than were found in 2005. Exposure to arsenic, a carcinogen, can cause health effects including skin changes, lung and digestive system irritation, and may increase the risk of skin, lung and liver cancer, according to recent meeting minutes of discussion of the Ledge Road landfill Public Involvement Plan. In a letter sent to the town earlier this year, the state DEP wrote that it "has determined that additional assessment is necessary to evaluate arsenic and other landfill contaminants in the vicinity of the landfill, in particular within the wetland and down-gradient surface water." In the letter, DEP asked the town to provide: a proposal to restrict access to wetlands near the landfill, a proposal for an imminent hazard evaluation that considers all possible arsenic exposure pathways, and a plan to collect additional sediment, surface water and groundwater to determine the extent of arsenic contamination adjacent to the landfill. The town sent a response letter and proposed work plan to the state on Feb. 29, according to meeting minutes. After the additional tests conclude on May 15, the information will be evaluated from May 15 to Aug. 1. Town consultants have concluded that skin exposure to contaminated sediment near the landfill would not pose an imminent hazard to children, according to the state. The evaluation also stated that the arsenic levels present in 2006 did not pose an imminent hazard to the environment. There were no signs of dead fish or plant life. Though the conditions were not deemed an imminent hazard, initial ground sediment tests revealed "significant levels of arsenic detected in samples collected in areas tributary to Fish Brook, downstream of the landfill," according to a letter sent by town-hired engineer Andrew Miller to the state on Aug. 7. Stapczynski said the additional arsenic testing will not affect the town's effort to obtain a low-interest loan from the state, which it would then use to finance the landfill recapping. Nor would it alter the town's recapping plan, he said, which was revised this fall to accommodate the state's desire to recap the nearly 26-acre landfill all at once instead of in phases, as was previously planned.
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