it all should change once Bauxsol is injected, stakes are...

it all should change once Bauxsol is injected, stakes are rising

Posted on Thu, Jul. 21, 2005

Tests show high iron level in two Skytop-area wells


By Mike Joseph

[email protected]

PATTON TOWNSHIP -- The amount of iron in the latest water samples from two wells serving 25 homes and 70 people near Skytop was four to five times higher than the highest level of a contaminant allowed in drinking water, state Department of Environmental Protection officials said Thursday.

DEP hydrogeologist Randy Farmerie said he got the lab test results from monthly samples last Friday and is now awaiting results from new samples drawn Wednesday in order to confirm the excessive iron content readings or dismiss them as "another sampling problem."

The state's maximum contaminant level for iron is 0.3 parts per million. Farmerie, who oversees groundwater monitoring around the Interstate 99 site where massive amounts of pyritic rock are leaching metal-dissolving acid, said the sample results now trying to be confirmed or dismissed showed 1.3 parts per million for one of the two wells serving the upper section of the Ridgemont residential area. The other well shows 1.6 parts per million.

Monthly samples from the same wells show no previous excessive iron content since a 0.302 result in August.

Patton Township Councilman Bryce Boyer, a Ridgemont homeowner who operates the residential well water system, said he will not be concerned unless the re-test confirms the excessive iron content because a similarly high test result 15 months ago was shown to be invalid by a re-test.