Alton Kemp, 81, is one of the many residents of Flemington, New Jersey who has received free water since he was a child from the city. He has kept all of the letters from his attorney in their original envelopes and is just one of the many residents that feels victimized by the polluted wells in the area.
For the past 28 years, New Hanover County’s city of Flemington has been giving out free water to residents after the EPA discovered their polluted wells in the 1970’s. The county recently announced that they were no longer going to provide residents with free water and locals like Kemp are taking legal action to fight back.
Benzene Found in Water
The water issues arose in Flemington in the 1970’s when the county granted Waste Industries permission to “stash their trash” in various landfill sites throughout the county. By 1977 residents began complaining that there water smelled and tasted bad and several reports of health complications, including cases of leukemia, arose throughout the city.
David Noonan, was brought into play as an attorney representing the people and he requested that city commissioners close the landfill, install a permanent water system and compensate residents for damage to their property and potentially their health.
When an investigation was conducted by the state and federal agencies, the EPA found a large number of toxic chemicals, including benzene, a known carcinogen, beneath the landfill and in various wells containing the water residents were drinking.
Free Water Promised to Residents
After attorneys representing the residents of Flemington, including Noonan, negotiated with commissioners, they were eventually promised that the county would give residents 12,000 gallons of free water every two months and that they would pay for additional water needs beyond that.
However, lawsuits ensued and many residents still chose to take legal action for the damage that had already been done, damage they believed could have been prevented. In 1985 the defendants and the EPA reached a preliminary settlement and the site was to be secured before a vegetative soil cover was supposed to go on top of the landfill. In 1989, a study conducted by Waste Industries found that there was an extreme threat to public health from the landfill site.
Although those living in Flemington and the surrounding areas were continuing to get free water, EPA officials suggested residents still be tested for leukemia and other benzene related illnesses. Almost simultaneous this warning, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority took over the county’s utility system and refused to continue giving residents water for free.
Residents Hold County to Agreement
Kemp, who had been receiving free, clean water from the county since he was seven, says his distrust in the county provoked him to keep all the legal files, and now he’s glad he has.
Kemp and many of his Flemington neighbors have received free water for over three decades, all the result of an agreement that the county commissioners made with residents after benzene and other pollutants infected their private wells.
This past July, Kemp and many others got a letter informing from the county informing them that they would start receiving water bills on a regular basis. For residents in Flemington, a regular water bill, for water that could or could not be still polluted, financially and physically straining. They are insisting that the county took their clean water and are now putting them at risk for benzene exposure, something the county, not the residents, should have to pay for.
