January, 21, 2000
Lab affirms: No contaminant in wells
By Carol Bogart
Staff Writer
erNo cancer causing chemicals, dangerous metals or agriculture-related contaminants were found in 64 wells tested by Heidelberg's water quality lab, according to lab director Dr. Pete Richards.
Wells on all four sides of the Tiffin's abandoned landfill on CR 90 were tested for a wide range of contaminants including benzene, arsenic and vinyl chloride, Richard's says.
Benzene, arsenic and perchloroethylene (a solvent which can degrade into vinyl chloride, a potent carcinogen) were detected in a surface leachate sample at the landfill last spring.
Richards and lab manager Jack Cramer said sampling found "no pattern to suggest the landfill is the source" of a suspected cancer cluster in the area surrounding the landfill. Next month, The Ohio Department of Health's Cancer Surveillance unit director, Robert Indian, expects to begin mapping the cancers in Seneca and Eden townships.
Heidelberg's study, Richards said, was "done for the citizens of Tiffin and paid for by the state." Richards said he would review the A-T's request to review the raw data from the various well samples.
Richards said it was unlikely a sand and gravel waterbearing lens would cross the Sandusky River, but acknowledged the bedrock aquifer would cut beneath the river. He said he didn't know offhand the depths of the wells tested but couldn't recall any that were "less than three digits (100 feet)" and thought most were between 100 and 150 feet deep.
He said that "in periods of high flow (when the river is high after heavy rains and snowmelt)" the river could recharge the shallower aquifer and said contaminants would "be drastically diluted" by the volume of water coming from the river.
Richards and Cramer said no wells between the landfill and the river along CR 90 were tested but said it was because none of those residents volunteered to have their wells tested. Many houses along CR 19 and SR 231 were tested, Richards said.
Richards said local concerns about strontium levels should be put to rest because of the amount of calcium the lab found. He said strontium at high levels can cause a painful bone condition and can even "be crippling." Sufficient calcium in the diet eliminates the risk, Richards said. Water