Their well water is ‘not fit to drink’. EPA is backing away.
When they bought their dream home, they didn’t know it was across from a toxic sewage sludge field. The water looked clean and the farm across the road looked ordinary. When Steve and Patty Wall bought their home in Alamance County, North Carolina, more than 40 years ago, they had no reason to believe the fields across from their property were being sprayed with toxic sewage sludge. “I didn’t know any difference,” Steve says. “But if I knew, I wouldn’t have bought this property.” Four decades later, after foul odors, rising contamination levels, and state warnings not to drink from their well, the property they spent a lifetime shaping has become a symbol of uncertainty and loss. The sewage sludge field across from their Alamance County dream home. What is sewage sludge? Biosolids, or “sludge,” is sewage waste that is often contaminated when it gets spread on farmland ...