Is the Coakley landfill Superfund site a location of interest in the investigation of a possible Seacoast cancer cluster? That’s what Jim Maggliore and a host of other officials in the region are trying to find out.
Maggliore is chairman of the North Hampton selectman. The town abuts the 92-acre site. Years ago, Roger Wood was an investigative journalist involved in the story of contamination of the Lafayette Terrace residents’ wells by toxics leaking from broken barrels at the site.
Now, Maggliore, riding his bicycle on a rail trail near the site, has spotted an orange sludge near another part of the landfill. He and other leaders, including state Rep. Tom Sherman, M.D. and David Borden of New Castle, met with state health and environmental officials in Concord to discuss their concerns about the liquid that is now leaking into wetlands.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency has said that it will consider investigating the landfill site for chemicals, and whether they may be toxic.
Residents in five communities, including Portsmouth, Rye, North Hampton, Greenland and New Castle have expressed concern about children contracting a rare soft tissue form of cancer called RMS. The site was a dump from 1972 to 1982. It was capped in 1998. For InDepthNH.org, I’m Roger Wood