Wolverine denies responsibility for the heavy metals contamination despite the home’s proximity to its House Street dump, the source of a per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, plume in Belmont.
"The only thing we believe could be the source is House Street," said Jennifer Carney, who said the home has no lead fixtures or plumbing.
The Carney’s home is one of two Varnum Law firm client properties with lead in the well above the Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water limit of 15-ppb.
Sandy Wynn-Stelt’s home across from the House Street dump was the other property tested for lead.
Wolverine says monitoring well samples from its 76-acre House Street dump haven’t tested positive for lead and "all of the soil samples from the House Street site are well below cleanup criteria for lead."
The DEQ tested 36 homes near the dump for lead and of the seven with detections, "all were well below the state action level," Wolverine said.
The DEQ echoed that finding in a Wednesday statement, while also pointing to the EPA’s January order requiring more investigative work at the House Street dump.
Carney decided to buy the county’s $26 lead test kit after reading the EPA order, which referenced sediment contaminated with lead at 130,000-ppb in the Rogue River near the tannery and a composite sampling collected by Wolverine’s contractor that found lead on Imperial Pine Drive near the House Street dump at 3-ppb.
Carney said fluctuations in the PFAS levels in her well across two rounds of testing indicate that, at least for PFAS, contamination levels change over time.
"Thankfully, it doesn’t take 4-6 weeks like PFAS to get test results.