Wells

“A Well sixe or seven fathom [feet] deepe, fed by brackish River owzing into it” was the source of colonial Virginian’s water in 1610, according to Sir Thomas Gates. He added that he believed the well to be the source of “many diseases and sicknesses which have happened to our people.”

Modern Southern wells are just as much a necessity—and a hazard—as they were in Gates’ day. While well building techniques are safer, industrialization has introduced a new set of health risks. Toxic industrial waste, agricultural chemicals, and underground injection of sewage are all threats to the purity of underground water. The South is particularly hard-hit because of its combination of high pollution rates, large poor rural populations, and poor access to health care.

“Many states have not made the connection between health costs and environmental problems,” says Paul Schwartz, national campaigns director of the Clean Water Fund in Washington, D.C. “In Southern states there is often no effort at prevention and no public health infrastructure to deal with the consequences of contaminated water.”

With limited money and personnel to monitor groundwater, most states have only a spotty picture of the extent of contamination. Tests that are done tend to confirm residents’ fears, however. In North Carolina, for example, one in 10 wells in a sample of 948 had unsafe levels of nitrates, a byproduct of animal waste that can cause blue baby syndrome and other illnesses. State health officials attribute much of the contamination to nearby corporate hog farms. In the Paw Creek community in Charlotte, dotted with dozens of petroleum tanks and where residents have suffered high rates of cancer, water testing has revealed gasoline products in well water.

Since nearly a third of North Carolina’s residents depend on well water, more than any other state in the South, the contamination is of particular concern. “Our water has been good for ages. Now we’re very concerned,” says Becky Bass, a mother of two who lives near Wilson, North Carolina. Her son vomited from drinking water taken from their well, which is next door to a large hog operation (See “Hog Wild,” SE, Fall 1992). Groups like the Clean Water Fund of North Carolina have worked to educate citizens with fact sheets on how to get wells tested and which contaminants to test for.

Ninety-two percent of Florida’s residents are dependent on groundwater from private wells or public systems. Floridians have had to reckon with years of intense chemical agriculture, sea water intrusion, and development in a state with a delicate ecosystem and vulnerable water table. When Florida citrus growers sprayed ethylene dibromide (EDB) to stop nematodes in the 1970s, they left behind a legacy of serious groundwater pollution. According to Peter Wilkins, a geologist with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), more than 400,000 acres of land contaminated mostly with EDB but also with nitrates, underground oil tanks, and Superfund sites, have been designated as Delinated Contamination Areas, unfit for drinking water wells.

Yet some of the worst-contaminated areas, such as the region west of Orlando, are now under the heaviest pressure for development. “Good developers want planned communities, but many others complain about the controls and have people put in their own wells and septic tanks,” says Wilkins. He adds that local water management officials screen requests to build wells, but the program isn’t well staffed or funded enough to keep up with the development.

Development has raised the specter of a more terrifying type of well—the kind used to inject sewage underground. “Florida has the largest underground injection in the nation,” says Andrew Jubal Smith, staff attorney for the Legal Environmental Assistance Foundation (LEAF) in Tallahassee. “The injected waste water includes industrial as well as municipal wastes, yet many chemicals are not screened for and there’s potential for harm. Our goal is to try to protect sources of drinking water from these contaminants.”

Toward that goal, LEAF has worked with a coalition of concerned citizens to end Florida’s injection program and improve monitoring of groundwater through model legislation and upgrading rules to EPA standards. Says Smith, “It’s the only way to counter industry’s ‘deal with it later’ attitude.”