ANDERSON — If a proposed landfill northeast of the city leaked contaminants into a nearby well field — what city water officials have called a worst-case scenario — the cost to fix it could reach into the millions.

Anderson Water Department Superintendent Tom Brewer said four wells located near Killbuck Creek make up 60 percent of the city’s water supply and are within a few miles downstream of the proposed Mallard Lake Landfill, which has been caught up in legal and governmental obstacles since it first was zoned 31 years ago.

The damage could be irreversible if the wells were contaminated from the landfill, Brewer said, particularly if it contained leachate, the term for the liquid that emerges under a landfill after rain soaks through the waste.

“You can’t always remove everything (from the water),” Brewer said. “The best long-term answer would be abandoning the wells. I don’t know it can be fixed. If we had to move the well field, it could be in the millions.”

Cities have to meet strict standards under the Safe Drinking Water Act, Brewer said, making all substances that could contaminate the water a concern. The four wells near Killbuck Creek are particularly susceptible to contaminants because they are shallow, leaving water that collects in them little room to be filtered as it seeps through the soil.

“Those wells along Killbuck Creek are classified by (the Indiana Department of Environmental Management) to be under direct influence of surface water,” Brewer said. “The quality of the creek depicts the quality of the wells. It’s simply apparent to everyone that Killbuck Creek should remain as pristine as possible.”

Ralph Reed, owner of JM Corp., which is developing the landfill, said he had jumped through all of the hoops set forth by IDEM and the legal system and overcome 31 years’ worth of challenges to the landfill. Last month, IDEM issued a construction permit to JM Corp. allowing it to begin building the site, after the corporation cleared another legal hurdle. The Killbuck Concerned Citizens Association, a local group against the landfill, has since filed an appeal against the permit.

“This has all been litigated and everything in court and IDEM’s already approved it,” Reed said. “IDEM wouldn’t accept it if these things these people were saying were true.”

The landfill would follow all the necessary protective measures and have all the equipment needed to ensure leachate did not get into the ground water, Reed said. Mallard Lake Landfill has been the most investigated landfill in the state, he said, and each time it has been found by judges and state agencies that it would conform to environmental standards.

“These people need to get a life,” Reed said. “This is the third set of people out here that’s went through this. There’s nothing that they’re saying that’s happened that they have any evidence to substantiate it.

“It don’t matter what the remonstrators say or what JM Corp. says, what matters is what IDEM says.”

Mallard Lake got its first construction permit from IDEM in 1986 after two weeks of testimony and received its operating permit in 1988 after a similar process, Reed said.

In 1996, JM Corp. applied for a modification to its permit to comply with newly passed federal standards, and it was issued another permit in 1998, Reed said.

“We’ve had support from all the mayors up until (former Mayor Kevin) Smith,” he said. “Smith didn’t support us, but he didn’t come out against us. I find (Mayor Kris Ockomon’s) recent stand against the landfill to be very disappointing.”

In 1984, the city paid $55,000 for a test done by an Ohio engineering firm that determined the landfill would not affect the city’s water supply, Reed said. The test was done before the landfill would have been required to have a leachate collection system in place. Without the system, the leachate would have traveled about half an inch a year, he said.

With the leachate collection system, the contaminated liquid would be hauled off to the city’s Water Pollution Control facility to be disposed, Reed said.

Water Pollution Control Superintendent Nara Manor said landfill operators are required to cover their landfills to prevent leachate, and after it’s collected, they must take it to be treated.

If the system works, contaminants won’t get into the city’s water supply. Brewer and Manor, however, are worried that something will go wrong.

“The fear by many is that if it does not operate properly, it could have a direct influence on our well field,” Brewer said. “How close the landfill is to the creek is what makes people nervous. Why would you even think about operating a landfill upstream? It just defies common sense. I don’t feel it’s a sound practice.”

The landfill doesn’t pose an immediate threat, Brewer said, but could be damaging in the future.

“Liners always fail to some degree because of the tons of stuff on it,” he said. “What if it doesn’t work as well as designed? What if it doesn’t work 100 percent?”

Added Manor, “In our jobs, we’re supposed to look at those worst-case scenarios and plan for them.”

Brewer said although landfills are a necessity, the importance of abundant clean water in the city will attract businesses, like Nestlé, that used large amounts of water.

“This is the water belt of the nation,” he said. “We have geological gifts here that are recognized around the country. Many businesses need large amounts of that pristine water. Water is the new oil.”

Contact Aleasha Sandley: 640-4805, aleasha.sandley@heraldbulletin.com.