Couple worried landfill polluting property
By Gail Gibson
South-Central Kentucky Bureau
SLOANS VALLEY -- Below Tom and Cathy Crockett's land winds an extensive cave system that leads to Lake Cumberland.
On a hill above their land sits Pulaski County's landfill.
And in one swampy spot on their property, the Crocketts worry that the two have met.
The spot that the Crocketts have not-so-affectionately dubbed the "goo pond" is just one part of a long-standing controversy about whether contaminated run-off from the landfill is polluting Lake Cumberland, the region's source for drinking water.
In 1994, the company that operates the landfill agreed to test the Crockett's pond to see whether it was contaminated and whether it needed to be cleaned up.
But after two years and plenty of legal wrangling, not much has happened.
Michael Fioravante, vice president of Pulaski Grading Inc., said the Crocketts have held up progress by turning down an early water-sampling plan, not allowing the company access to their property and threatening legal action.
PGI says its landfill has not contaminated the Crockett's land or threatened the lake. And in letters to the Crocketts and the state, PGI repeatedly has said it is willing to do the tests, according to files at the state Cabinet for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection.
In a February letter, an attorney for the Cabinet also put blame on the Crocketts and said the cabinet is willing to help the two sides find a solution.
That incensed the Crocketts, who say they are just trying to protect their property value and the environment. They said they had to retain a lawyer to ensure a voice in the discussion about their own land.
"In a year, they haven't so much as called us to ask if they can take a sample," said Tom Crockett, who bought the land and started building a house on it in 1979, about a year before the landfill opened.
"If I'm not being contacted, how can I hold anything up?" Tom Crockett said.
While debate about testing the water continues, the Crocketts say the pond itself has grown. In the last month, cavers discovered that a 10-foot-wide sinkhole had opened in the middle of it.
The Crocketts are concerned that water from the pond now has a direct chute into the Sloan's Valley cave system and, in turn, the lake. The cave system, with 24 mapped miles, is one of the largest in the country.
Their concerns are shared by members of the Somerset/Pulaski County Concerned Citizens group and the Sloan's Valley Conservation Task Force. Both groups have watched the landfill closely for years and are protesting a planned expansion at the site.
Two weeks ago, a small group, including Cathy Crockett and her infant daughter, drove to Frankfort to meet with new Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet Secretary James Bickford.
They told Bickford about the long history of the landfill in southern Pulaski County and presented him with a list of questions, said Linda Ritchie, a member of the Pulaski citizens group.
Mark York, a cabinet spokesman, said last week that a response to the questions is not yet complete.
Cathy Crockett said the meeting went well. Realistically, though, she wonders if the problem on her property will ever be solved.
"We're trying to show them that we're going to fight this," she said.
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