05/10/1990 BOARD OF HEALTH Minutes

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• t Reference 1, Standard Methods for Examination of Water and Wastewater, 16th ed. , 1985. Available from the American Public Health Association, 1015 18th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036. Reference 2. Methods of Chemical Analysis of Water and Wastes, U.S# Environmental Protection Agency, ESM , Cincinnati, off 45268, March, 1979 (EPA-600/4-79-020) . Available from ORD Publications, CERT, E A,Cincinnati, off 45268. Reference 3 . Methods for the Determination of -org4nic Compounds in Finished Drinking water and Raw Source Water. September 1986. Physical and Chemical Methods Branch , Environmental Monitoring and Support Laboratory, usS. Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, off 45268. DISCUSSION: The Mashpee Municipal Landfill has historically been viewed as the source of groundwater contamination in the Su merwood Condominium area. This assumption was questioned by Weston and Sampson Inc. in their above mentioned report. Their argument 'was supported by evaluating the mature of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) observed in the Condominium drinking water wells and the VOC contamination found in the groundwater underlying and flowing from the landfill (see Fable 2) , The VOCs identified at the Summerwood Condos are a series of Vocs whit' h are referred to as "halogenated. " This means that they have as a component a halogen. At the Summerwood condos these include a series of chlorinated solvents, such as 1, 1, 1-trichloroethane and 1, 1- dichloroethene. In addition to these we also observed the VOC chloroform to be 4 present in all of these samples, The mature of the VOC contamination present at ' the landfill is principally different. Although chlorinated solvents are present, there is also a whole spectrum of other types of VOCs. Dichlorodifluoromethane, a freon, is one such compound which IS commonly associated with landfilling and is in fact observed in groundwaters at landfill locations all over the Cape. Chloroform was not observed in any of the landfill samples. Interestingly this phenomenon is observed in impacted groundwater at landfill u sites all over the Cape, 1f the landfill were responsible for the - contamination identified at the Summerwood condos we would expect to see this trend of compound' present there, which we do not. , When evaluating the extent of groundwater impact from landfill areas one of the parameters of particular concern are VOCs. These compounds are not found in nature 'arid are indicative of an impact from ars upgrad3`-ent anthropogenic source, .such as a landfill , However, inorganic compounds found in groundwater in higher than average concentrations can also be associated with anthropogenic