Crews replace well at Dunbar sludge site

FORT MYERS, Fla. A monitoring well used to track the water on the northwest corner of a toxic sludge site in Dunbar was replaced Wednesday.

The monitoring well was part of an assessment program the city had been doing for several years, environmental department manager Scott McManus said. It had been in disrepair for the last two years.

“It’s used to determine what chemicals are in the groundwater if any and if they’re moving at all,” city spokeswoman Kirsten O’Donnell said.

A total of six wells are located on the city-owned area bounded by Henderson Avenue on the west, Midway Avenue on the east, Jeffcott Street on the south and South Street on the north.

The well needed to be replaced before any other testing could be done on the site, McManus said.

The well had the third highest levels of arsenic and sits in the direction groundwater flows and continues right into the homes surrounding it, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said.

Rickey Rogers, who lives near the site, is concerned after arsenic discovered in 2007 on the grounds may have ended up in his drinking water, potentially leading up to health problems.

“We drunk that water, we bathed in that water, we cooked in that water, so we don’t know,but I would like to find out though,” Rogers said.

The latest assessment on the soil, ground water and surface water at the site could take weeks to complete.

WINK News reporter Jessica Alpern went live via Facebook as crews arrived around 8 a.m.