Agenda - 09-21-1999 - 2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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13. Numerous questions were related to water quality issues. They inquired about potential contamination of Durham's water source; the fact that the Guess Road site is underlain by fractured bedrock; long -term runoff into the Little River; what will happen if the contamination reaches bedrock ( "It can go for miles in the aquifer and contaminate wells for miles'); how potential contamination of private wells will be prevented. A detailed hydrogeologic study is required by the NC Solid Waste Section prior to issuing a permit to construct a landfill to address these types of questions. They will not approve a landfill site unless the operator has demonstrated the following: a. that groundwater flow rates and pathways at the site are understood, predictable and characterized, b. that locations of, and pathways to, groundwater supply wells in the vicinity are likewise characterized; c. that the landfill is not located such that potentially short and direct pathways from waste to supply wells will occur; and, d. that a network of monitoring wells will be able to detect the release of landfill constituents before any exceedence of the Drinking Water Standards occurs at the point of compliance. The Solid Waste Section requires more detailed investigations at those sites located over fractured bedrock, such as this one. The site subsurface investigation was conducted to identify the character and orientation of the subsurface fractures, the flow directions of groundwater in soil and bedrock beneath and around the site, and to identify the limits of possible groundwater pathways away from the site. At both of the proposed sites, groundwater flow pathways do not extend "for miles ", but rather for several hundred feet. If monitoring wells immediately adjacent to the facility were ever to detect contamination, the State would require actions to prevent contamination from reaching any residential supply wells. Surface water monitoring data collected from closed unlined landfills across the state over the past ten years suggest that groundwater flowing from landfills at either of the two sites is not likely to have a measurable impact on downstream surface water. For the mass of landfill surface water data that has been collected to date, laboratory detection of landfill compounds is extremely rare. Most recorded detections have been limited to instances where surface monitoring points are located in very small streams or drainage ditches adjacent to the edge of landfill waste. Responses to Questions 4 Joyce Engineering, Inc.