Residents are worried about Carroll?s plan to build a reservoir near a landfill, but an environmental expert says any contamination could be treated.
“You can start with water that may not be ideal and treat it so it is appropriate,” said James Slater, the county?s environmental compliance officer.
“Technology is available to treat the contamination level that we might encounter plus other technological things can be done to create barriers,” such as a wall between the proposed Union Mills reservoir and the closed John Owings Landfill.
Monitoring wells show that cancer-causing dichloroethene and vinyl chloride have seeped from the landfill into groundwater, but these compounds are contained within the property, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment. Maryland Environmental Service plans to increase the frequency of water sampling there from twice to four times a year.
Several residents, including members of the Union Mills Watershed Association, said they are concerned with the potential water quality of a reservoir constructed near a landfill and tire dump.
“Given … the possibility and probability of the leeching of harmful contaminates from the John Owings Landfill … other locations should be considered,” said John Sessa, a resident who lives along East Sawmill Road, wrote to commissioners.
Filters could remove any cancer-causing chemicals before they reach residents, Slater said.
Residents also raised concerns about Carroll building the reservoir on part of the farm where Whittaker Chambers, a former Soviet spy, hid documents that incriminated another spy, Alger Hiss.
Officials said the reservoir would affect about 15 acres of the 346-acre farm, a tract that doesn?t include exactly where Chambers hid documents in pumpkins.
Designating a portion of the farm as a reservoir buffer zone could actually help preserve the historic site, county spokeswoman Vivian Laxton said.
