The Duell & Gardner Landfill site was listed on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (U.S. EPA) National Priorities List (NPL) on September 8, 1983. The site, located in rural Dalton Township, Muskegon County, Michigan, was used from the mid-1940s until 1973 as a municipal landfill that also received industrial wastes. Isolated areas of surface and subsurface soil on the site are stained with crystal violet, an aniline-based dye. Crystal violet, aniline, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, and other chemicals have been found in the groundwater at the site. These chemicals have not been found in nearby surface water nor in nearby residential wells. Approximately 500 drums in various stages of deterioration, hundreds of lab bottles, areas of refuse and debris, and piles of lime were reported to be on the site in 1984. During March 1986, some of the drums, lab bottles and piled wastes were removed from the site. Selected areas of heavily-stained soil were covered with plastic to reduce leaching of contaminants to the groundwater. Access to the site is not restricted, and signs of trespass have been observed.
The site poses no apparent public health hazard under current conditions. Trespassers may be exposed to contaminants of concern, though not to the extent that adverse health effects are likely to result after ordinary exposures. Unless remedial actions are taken, contaminants in the groundwater may reach a point of exposure in the future. This assessment recommends that access to areas of heavily contaminated soil be restricted, as a precaution against extraordinary exposures, and that appropriate precautions be taken by workers during remedial activities on the site.
The Duell & Gardner Landfill site was listed on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (U.S. EPA) National Priorities List (NPL) on September 8, 1983.
A. Site Description and History
The Duell & Gardner Landfill site is located at 1285 E. Bard Road in Dalton Township, Muskegon County, Michigan, on the south side of Bard Road between Putnam and Staple Roads (see Figure 1). It occupies the east 1/2 of the northwest 1/4 of Section 27, T. 11 N., R. 16 W., and covers approximately 80 acres.
A municipal landfill operated on southern part of the site from the 1940s to 1973. Before 1969, the landfill operated as an uncontrolled dump, accepting industrial waste and general refuse. Solid and liquid wastes apparently were deposited on the soil surface and in ground depressions.
In 1969, the landfill property changed hands, and the new owners applied for a state license to operate a solid waste disposal facility for general refuse and garbage. Selected areas of the landfill were excavated and waste was placed in unlined trenches. Stained soils (reds, blues, greens) were reportedly observed when the trenches were being excavated. In 1971, the Michigan Department of Public Health (MDPH) stipulated that no liquid waste be disposed of in the landfill. In 1973, the Muskegon County Health Department (MCHD) reported that liquid waste disposal was still occurring. Nearby surface water contamination was also noted. There is no record of what the liquid wastes were and no other record of industrial waste being dumped on the site after 1969. The landfill ceased operations in 1973. Approximately 500 drums in various stages of deterioration, hundreds of lab bottles, areas of refuse and debris, and piles of lime were reported to be on the site in 1984. During March 1986, the drums, lab bottles and piled wastes were removed from the site. Selected areas of heavily-stained soil were covered with plastic to reduce leaching of contaminants to the groundwater.
A contractor for the U.S. EPA and Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) carried out field work for the Remedial Investigation (RI) of the site between December 1986 and January 1992. The final report of the RI was issued in April 1992 (1). The Feasibility Study for the remediation of the site was issued in August 1992 (2).
The MDPH, under a cooperative agreement with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), completed a Preliminary Health Assessment (PHA) for the Duell and Gardner Landfill site on April 14, 1989. The PHA concluded that the site was of potential public health concern because of the possibility of exposure to chemicals of concern via use of groundwater by nearby residents and via contact with contaminated soils by trespassers. The PHA recommended restriction of access to the site and further characterization of the contamination at the site. The PHA did not recommend follow-up health activities at that time (3).
There are some small, low, fairly gentle elevations and depressions on the site. The highest elevation, near the midpoint of the eastern side, is about 21 feet above the lowest, in the southeast corner. The southern part of the site is wooded, with large clearings interspersed. Much of the northern part of the site has been cleared of woods, except around the periphery. There are several buildings on the north half of the site, including the residences of the property owners. A gravel road and several dirt tracks provide vehicle access from Bard Road to the residences and to the disposal areas in the southern part of the site. The disposal areas in the southern part of the site are not fenced. The MDNR has posted signs at some locations around the periphery warning of the contamination. Several areas around the residences are fenced, for security, privacy, or livestock control purposes. There is also a fence along the west boundary of the site, belonging to the property owner on that side. These fences are not contiguous around the disposal areas, however.
Bear Creek is approximately 1 mile southeast of the site. An unnamed tributary to Bear Creek flows south from approximately 1,000 feet east of the southeast corner of the site to the creek. The tributary receives water from two agricultural drainage channels, one flowing west to east approximately 600 feet south of the site and one flowing north to south approximately 1,000 feet east of the site. The tributary and these ditches are intermittent, containing water in wet seasons and drying completely in dry seasons.
As is typical in the Great Lakes basin, the site area sits on glacial deposits overlying the bedrock. In the site area, the glacial deposits are approximately 300 feet thick. The bedrock is sandstone that is part of the Marshall Formation. Boring logs from area residential wells, oil wells and monitoring wells record fine to medium textured sands interbedded with clay layers varying from 1 to 32 feet in thickness. One aquifer has been identified at the site, an unconfined aquifer extending from the water table, at 3 to 16 feet below the surface, down to a depth of 50 to 100 feet or more. No continuous confining layer was found during the RI hydrogeologic investigation. The groundwater flow in the area is to the southeast toward Bear Creek.
Art Bloomer, Brendan Boyle, John Hesse, and Vaughn Wagner of the MDPH and Walter Dowdle, Mark Bashor, and Louise Fabinski of the ATSDR visited the Duell & Gardner Landfill site on July 7, 1988. James Bedford and Brendan Boyle of MDPH toured the vicinity surrounding the site on December 10, 1992, and held an availability session the same evening. Observations and information collected on these visits are incorporated into this assessment.
C. Demographics, Land Use, and Natural Resource Use
The site is located in a relatively sparsely populated rural area with approximately 140 persons living within a 1-mile radius and 1,200 persons within a 2-mile radius of the site. The 1990 Census reported the population of Muskegon County to be primarily non-Hispanic white, with 13% Black, 2.3% Hispanic, 0.8% Native American, 0.3% Asian or Pacific Islander, and 1% other races. Twenty-eight per cent of the County population was under 18 years of age, and 13% was 65 or older (4).
Land use in the site area is generally mixed woodlands and agricultural. Residences are primarily located along the roads, which run along section lines (such as Bard Road, Putnam Road, and McMillan Road) or half-section lines (Strand Road and Pillon Road). The closest residences to the site are the site's owners' in the north half of the site, approximately 0.25 miles from the disposal areas. Businesses or industry in the vicinity of the site include an auto junk yard adjacent to the site on the north; a commercially-operated campground 1 mile west of the site; a golf course 1.5 miles south of the site; several small businesses and gas stations along M-120 (2 miles southeast of the site) and several chemical plants in western Dalton Township. There is a school, currently serving 25 to 30 special-education students, approximately 1.5 miles west of the site, which would be upgradient (to groundwater flow) and upwind of the site. The Ott/Story/Cordova Chemical Company NPL site is located approximately 3 miles southwest of the Duell & Gardner Landfill site.
There is no municipal water supply available in the site area. Residents use private wells for their domestic water supply. The site owners have two private wells at their residences on the north half of the site, less than 0.25 miles from the disposal areas. These are wells PW-19 and -20 in Figure 2, which shows the private wells that were sampled during the Remedial Investigation. Construction logs for PW-5, -8, -10, -13, -14, -16, and -19 list depths between 25 and 38 feet (1). Most private wells in the area would be of similar depths, though there may be wells as deep as 70 feet or more. There is no record of any use of the Marshall Formation sandstone bedrock for a water supply in Dalton Township.
There is little documentation available on hunting and fishing in the vicinity of the Duell & Gardner Landfill. Residents of the site vicinity are aware that hunting occurs in the vicinity, and have expressed concern about the possibility of exposure to site-related contaminants through game animals. Area residents have reported seeing children fishing in Bear Creek in the site vicinity. In Michigan, hunting or fishing is generally for recreation, with some game or fish often kept for consumption. Subsistence hunting or fishing is not unknown in the State, though neither is common and neither is documented well enough to permit an estimate of the number of people involved.
Based on the evaluations performed as part of this public health assessment, there are indications that humans that have worked and played on this site have been exposed to site-related contaminants. Based on the concentrations identified at the site, the exposures are not expected to be sufficient to cause long term adverse health effects. However, if higher concentrations of contaminants were present in the past, and if people were exposed for a long time, they may have incurred a low increased risk of contracting cancer.
The assessors have reviewed age-adjusted cancer mortality rates for Dalton, Fruitland and Muskegon Townships, Muskegon County for the period of 1983-1987 as obtained from the Michigan Death Registry.
There were community health concerns identified during this evaluation. The issues raised concerned exposure to chemicals and not specific health outcomes, and are addressed later in this assessment.
John Filpus of MDPH attended an MDNR-sponsored public meeting concerning the site on April 29, 1992. Several of the 13 residents of the site vicinity attending the meeting expressed concerns over their potential exposure to the contaminants at the site. One resident of the site area mentioned that he had voluntarily been using bottled water for drinking for two years, although he was still using water from his private well (PW-8 on Figure 2) for washing.
MDPH held an availability session at the Dalton Township Hall on the evening of December 10, 1992, to solicit health questions and concerns regarding the site. Though only six residents attended the meeting, those present raised several topics for discussion including:
1. Whether the residential wells near the site are endangered by site-related contamination.
2. The need for better site restriction and more posting of warning signs along routes used by trespassers entering the site area.
3. The possibility that people who worked and played on-site years ago could have had health effects from this exposure then, or might now or sometime in the future suffer illnesses.
4. The relationship of the drainage ditch south of the site boundary and the plume of contaminated water extending southeast from sources on the site.
5. Whether deer and other game hunted on site are contaminated and unsafe to eat.
The MDPH representatives asked if anyone knew of someone who had health complaints that they thought were related to contaminants from the site.
6. One person mentioned that relatives of his who lived near the site had had health problems.
A draft of this public health assessment for the Duell and Gardner Landfill site was released for public comment on February 16, 1994. The public comment period lasted until March 18, 1994. No comments were received by the MDPH in this period. Additional comments and new information on the site will be considered by MDPH and ATSDR for future assessments of, or consultations on, the site.
Next Section Table of Contents
