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 the contaminant allowed in drinking water, state Department of Environmental Protection officials said Thursday.
DEP hydrogeologist Randy Farmerie said he received the test results from monthly samples last Friday and is awaiting results from new samples drawn Wednesday in order to confirm the excessive iron content readings or dismiss them as "another sampling problem."
The results from the new tests are expected in about a week, said Farmerie, who oversees groundwater monitoring around an Interstate 99 construction site where the state Department of Transportation unearthed massive amounts of pyritic rocks that leach metal-dissolving sulfuric acid.
The state's maximum contaminant level for iron is 0.3 parts per million. Farmerie 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 and 1.6 parts per million for the other well.
Farmerie said monthly samples of the same two wells showed no previous excessive iron content since a 0.302 result in August. A preconstruction sample in 1989 had an iron level of 0.45 parts per million, Farmerie said.
Patton Township Supervisor Bryce Boyer, a Ridgemont homeowner who operates the residential well-water system, said he will not be concerned unless the retest confirms the excessive iron content because a similarly high test result 15 months ago was shown to be invalid by a retest.
One Ridgemont well is 500 feet deep, and the other is 230 feet deep, Boyer said, "so it just doesn't make sense" for the high iron levels to show up suddenly in both.
"It could be that the sample when it was drawn was flawed, or when the test was done it was as flawed -- I'm not thinking that we're going to show up with a high iron content," Boyer said. "If it comes back with a retest of higher than normal, then definitely we would be looking for remediation. At this point, we're looking at it as a flawed test."
The Ridgemont homes are across U.S. Route 322 from the Matternville school and just east of the I-99 construction area that for more than 18 months has been the site of a multimillion-dollar effort to control acidic runoff into Buffalo Run, Bald Eagle Creek and groundwater.
Elevated levels of iron in water can make water smell and taste bad and stain clothing, but does not cause illness, at least not in the short run, DEP officials and Boyer said Thursday.
Boyer, who does not use bottled water, said he hasn't noticed any difference in the taste or smell of his well water. Another Ridgemont resident, Dick Ott, who does use bottled water, said his well water "has tasted funny for a long time."
Also Thursday, Penn State geologist Duff Gold said he and Penn State geochemist Hu Barnes have embarked on a substantial test of Bauxsol and two other acid-rock cleanup agents -- magnesium hydroxide and powdered limestone -- to make a cost-benefit comparison.
Bauxsol, a derivative of the aluminum manufacturing industry marketed by the Australian company Virotec, is being prepared for a million-dollar pilot test at Skytop to gauge its effectiveness in counteracting pyrite. The first Bauxsol-water mixtures are scheduled to be injected into a pyritic fill area on Aug. 15.
Bauxsol is more expensive than either magnesium hydroxide or powdered limestone, Penn State geologists have said.
Mike Joseph can be reached at 235-3910.
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