Neighbors of the Rumpke-Medora Landfill are not in danger from chemical groundwater contamination from the landfill, concluded a federal report.
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s health consultation looked at the potential for landfill-related contaminants to get into private wells in amounts that could pose a public health hazard. The answer is they do not, for a variety of reasons:
- Most people in the area do not draw their drinking water from the area around Rumpke Landfill. Residents in the area are on the Jackson County Rural Water System, which draws water from wells at Brownstown near the East Fork White River, about 13 miles east of the landfill.
- One resident draws drinking water from a pond on his property. Some people in the area may also drink spring water. But those water sources are not at risk for contamination because:
- The landfill has engineering protections that prevent chemicals from reaching groundwater.
- The local geology prevents chemicals from reaching groundwater.
- Levels of chemicals and metals in groundwater on the landfill site are very low.
For these reasons it is highly unlikely that anyone off site is being, or ever has been, exposed to toxicologically significant quantities of landfill-related groundwater contaminants. ATSDR is accepting public comments on the document until March 11, an extension of an earlier deadline to allow more people to participate.
ATSDR first accepted a petition from a resident in 2004 who was concerned about health problems in his family and neighbors in the Medora area. ATSDR reported in 2007 that metals in sediment and water samples at residential areas and in agricultural fields posed no public health hazard. This final document reports the evaluation of the Rumpke of Indiana (Medora) landfill itself and focuses on groundwater.
The health assessment is available at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/pha/HCPHA.asp?State=IN. A copy of the health assessment is also available for review at the following locations:
Jackson County Public Library
303 West 2nd Street
Seymour, Indiana 47274
Phone: (812) 522-3412
Medora Branch Library
27 West Main
P.O. Box 400
Medora, Indiana 47260-0400
Phone: (812) 966-2278
ATSDR will accept comments on the health assessment through March 11. Comments on the health assessment must be made in writing. Comments received during the public comment period will be logged into the ATSDR administrative record for the health assessment and will appear in the final health assessment. Comments received (without the names of individuals who submitted them) and ATSDR’s responses to these comments will appear in an appendix to the final public health assessment. Names of those who submit comments, however, will be subject to release in answer to requests made under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Attention: Rolanda Morrison
ATSDR Records Center
4770 Buford Highway, NE (MS F-09)
Atlanta, GA 30341
For more information about the Public Health Assessment, contact Frank Schnell at FSchnell@cdc.govor (770) 488-0773.
ATSDR, a federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, evaluates the human health effects of exposure to hazardous substances.
Release Date: Tuesday, June 25, 2019
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has released its final public health assessment for the Jacobsville Neighborhood Soil Contamination (JNSC) site in Evansville, Indiana. The report evaluates whether exposure to lead and arsenic in soil, sediment, surface and groundwater could harm people's health.
Release Date: Tuesday, March 05, 2019
ATLANTA, GA - The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has released its health investigation report, “Analysis of Contaminants in Drinking Water and Indoor Air,” for the Pike and Mulberry Street PCE Plume in Martinsville, Morgan County, Indiana, for comment. ATSDR will
accept comments from the public until April 3, 2019.
Release Date: Thursday, August 16, 2018
(ATLANTA, GA) –The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has released its final health consultation report entitled, “Historical Blood Lead Levels in East Chicago, Indiana Neighborhoods Impacted by Lead Smelters,” in relation to the USS Lead Superfund Site.
Release Date: Friday, September 29, 2017
(ATLANTA, GA) – The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has released its final report for the North Shore Drive Groundwater Contamination Site in unincorporated Elkhart County, Indiana.
Release Date: Thursday, April 06, 2017
ATLANTA, GA – The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) released a new report for public comment for the North Shore Drive Groundwater Contamination Superfund site. ATSDR will accept comments from the public until May, 18, 2017.
Release Date: Monday, February 22, 2016
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) will hold a public meeting on March 8, 2016 to discuss the results of its Exposure Investigation of private water wells in Posey County.
Release Date: Wednesday, September 30, 2015
ATLANTA— The Jacobsville Neighborhood Soil Contamination (JNSC) site in Evansville, Indiana posed a public health threat in the past due to lead and arsenic levels detected in surface soils and continues to pose a public health threat for residential properties that have not yet been remediated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), concluded the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) on its public health assessment released today.
Release Date: Wednesday, July 17, 2013
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has released its final public health assessment for the Lane Street Ground Water Contamination site in Elkhart, Indiana.
Release Date: Thursday, March 14, 2013
Groundwater beneath some properties along Lane Street in Elkhart, Indiana, is contaminated with volatile organic compounds, including trichloroethylene (TCE), says the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in its revised draft public health assessment. The report is available for public comment until April 29, 2013.
Release Date: Monday, August 08, 2011
Groundwater beneath some properties along Lane Street in Elkhart, Indiana is contaminated with volatile organic compounds, including trichloroethylene (TCE), the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)concludes in its draft public health assessment.
Release Date: Friday, July 24, 2009
About 200 people were exposed to chemicals in drinking water wells near Lusher Avenue in Elkhart, IN, in the late 1980s, including an estimated 53 who were exposed to levels that may put them at greater risk for adverse health effects, concludes the final public health assessment (PHA) on the site from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
Release Date: Monday, March 02, 2009
Two decades after contamination was first found in Elkhart groundwater, federal officials continue to advise people who live in affected areas and use private wells to take precautions. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) released its public health assessment of the site March 2 and is welcoming public comment on the assessment until March 31.
Release Date: Friday, October 31, 2008
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry will hold an Open House in Elkhart, Indiana to gather community health concerns from residents of neighborhoods near the Lusher Avenue Groundwater Contamination Site.
Release Date: Thursday, April 03, 2008
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is seeking public comments on their health consultation for the Elm Street Groundwater Contamination Site in Terre Haute. The health consultation found that the contaminated water from the site poses no apparent public health hazard since the blending and treatment of drinking water by the Indiana American Water Company (IAWC) has lessened the contamination to levels below a health concern.
Release Date: Monday, February 05, 2007
Metals in soil and water on most local properties that were sampled pose no apparent public health hazard concludes the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in their Exposure Investigation (EI) released today. However, the agency found that certain locations sampled pose an indeterminate public health hazard. ATSDR recommends further evaluation of these locations to identify unknown materials and to determine the specific compounds of copper, nickel, sodium and calcium.
Release Date: Friday, June 03, 2005
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) will
hold a community meeting and public availability session on Thursday, June
16, 2005, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Medora Junior/Senior High School
gym, 82 South George Street, to hear community members’ health concerns that
may be related to the Rumpke Landfill site in Medora, IN.
Release Date: Thursday, July 29, 2004
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will hold a public availability session followed by a public meeting Aug. 3, 2004, about the Conrail Rail Yard Superfund Site in Elkhart, Ind.
The agency recently issued the public comment version of its public health assessment for the site.
At the public availability session from 4:30-6:30 p.m., ATSDR representatives will be available to talk one-to-one with community members about health concerns they believe are related to possible exposure to contaminants from the Conrail site.
Release Date: Thursday, July 01, 2004
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, today released for public review and comment a public health assessment for the Conrail Rail Yard Superfund Site in Elkhart, Ind.
The report was done at the request of community members and to update a preliminary public health assessment completed in 1989.