Liquid Waste Leakage Could Pollute Jackson County’s Potable Water

www.springhilldiw.com

The foul-smelling garbage syrup that pools beneath landfill piles drains into a 1280-metre-deep hole to keep the area as safe and sanitary as possible. However, this liquid, officially called leachate, could be threatening the potable water of Jackson County. Many citizens and large organizations agree that leachate is more dangerous than once thought to be and waste disposal methods need to be reevaluated.

It seems to most that the Department of Environmental Protection’s allowance of the drainage well is there mainly for the benefit of profiting companies, valuing jobs over eco-friendly waste management solutions. Furthermore, the Department assigns companies to independently monitor their own wells to keep them up to snuff. Typically, the company hires someone else to do it, and results are sent to the Department for safekeeping.

There are a total 262 injection wells in Florida. All of these wells hold a mixture of toxic waste and chemicals, and four of the wells are holding the chemicals produced by leachate. This whopping total exceeds that of any other single state in America. Although the wells may not be frequently checked, they are reportedly checked before and after their entire usage period.

Unfortunately, the lack of issues with the state’s injection wells does not indicate that they are completely safe. Pinellas County’s polluted fluid managed to leak and travel nearly two kilometres away from its original spot. The fluid also found its way into nearby private wells, and eventually, Pinellas stopped using injection wells, opting for an irrigation system instead.

St. Petersburg still uses injection wells to store wastewater and will create two new wells knowing exactly what could happen if anything goes wrong. The area is prepared to pump down the contents of any well that experiences problems to keep Tampa Bay unpolluted, though this would be illegal if state rules remain as they are.

Waste Management claims that using injection wells is currently Jackson County’s safest option, especially because the landfill has existed for about thirty years and gives off more than 150,000 litres of leachate daily. The leachate is then extracted and sent to wastewater treatment plants, which pour the resulting cleaner water over fields to filter through soil before reaching potable water stores.

Despite claims from treatment plants that they can’t handle more leachate, both plants have the ability to do so. The heads of the Department of Environment Protection have denied suspicions of breaking state law, stating that Waste Management purchased a newspaper spot for the new wells in line with the area’s regulations. Many residents still wish they’d been informed earlier.

The Department has written but not released a permit that would let Waste Management create a deep well for experimentation purposes. Whether released or not, Waste Management is expected to protect the health of the environment and the people that live in it.

While residents and certain government officials remain skeptical of the injection well system that is still so prominent in Jackson County, the new permit could help determine the true benefits and risks of the waste disposal system, and fix any problems that occur.