Tainted Water

Studies done in recent years show more than a dozen chemicals are showing up in water and soil samples where people live in Peachtree, North Carolina.

This is a problem that's surfacing in more than 1,000 places around the country according to the EPA, where years of neglect and dumping waste into the environment is now causing serious problems.

Heather Smith invited us onto her property to show us the problem.

"There's many chemicals found in this pond," Smith said.

Smith was going to have a pond built next to the home she bought four years ago in Peachtree.

But she learned this spring-fed hole is anything but clean, so she stopped the work.

The area around her six acres that's contaminated with volatile organic compounds is growing in size, now affecting 50 properties where most people get their water from wells.

Bob Wood, Cherokee County's health director, said "this new finding of expansion of contamination, those individuals will hopefully have that option to connect with the public water supply real soon."

In the meantime, the county's health director is telling affected families to not drink their water, not even bathe or wash clothes with it.

Even surface water like Slow Creek where horses, cattle and other animals drink is suspect.

"I was really blown away because our children had been playing in the creek, swimming around," Smith said.

The source of pollution is a next-door manufacturing facility once use by Clifton Precision to repair and clean airplane engines.

They're gone and Clifton's parent company, Northrup Grumman, sold the building to another company but retained the environmental problem, according to health officials.

Records show that in the 1980's Clifton dumped chemicals used to clean engine parts onto nearby land. The list includes chemicals like tetrachloroethene, trichloroethene, benzene, styrene and vinyl chloride.

They're chemicals known to cause serious health problems and in some cases cancer.

"Recently it's come out that the chemicals evaporate into the air and that's causing us to inhale the chemicals," Smith said.

Some temporary help is now on the way for families using well water.

"The contractor that's doing the investigation is also going to be putting some filter systems on these private water supplies to try and clean it up until an alternative water supply can be determined," Wood said.

Since this problem appears to be growing and affecting more people the EPA and Northrup Grumman will hold two public meetings next Thursday at the Peachtree Community Center.

Companies hired to monitor the soil and water in the area will be drilling new test wells in the coming weeks to help scientists find out just how far the pollution is going.