By now I am sure you have seen plenty of teeth gnashing and hair pulling by folks who claim the former City landfill site poses extremely dire health risks to future Village Farms residents and widespread offsite contamination.
As a result, they say you must stop this project now and instead demand vigilant long term monitoring of these wells to avoid an unimaginable environment catastrophe. But these claims are simply false and not substantiated with any quantitative evidence.
Firstly, as explicitly noted in the DEIR, long term monitoring by the City of all of the monitoring wells, both on the landfill and the Village Farms site, is already required by the Regional Water Board which will continue indefinitely until the Water Board changes its order.
Secondly, of the 3 monitoring wells on the Village Farms site, the DEIR showed only one well with a forever chemical concentration of about 29 parts per billion which admittedly is above the drinking water standard established for the 6 forever chemicals regulated by the US EPA. But the DEIR otherwise noted that the concentration of this chemical in one landfill well was about 37 times higher and about 15 times higher in the other landfill well sampled.
No forever chemicals of any type were found in the other 2 monitoring wells on the Village Farms site. This is consistent with prior independent tests showing that the direction of groundwater flow beneath the landfill has changed since the shutdown of the old Hunt Wesson Cannery and is now generally migrating toward the northeast—away from the project site.
As a result, the Water Board has stated the following in a letter dated July 26, 2023, <Quote> Water Board staff reviewed available records for the Old Davis Landfill Disposal Site…based on concerns expressed by a City of Davis resident to the Water Board. The resident expressed concerns regarding the “leaking of toxics” to groundwater from the closed landfill, and the potential risks leakage from the landfill may pose to properties south of the landfill…Staff does NOT believe a risk is posed to the residential and commercial properties proposed for development if the development is connected to the existing City municipal water system and the City water system is the sole means of water used by the development” <unquote>.
Since the Village Farms project will rely entirely on City supplied water for all potable water and landscape uses, the Water Board believes that there is no risk of harm to future residents of Village Farms or the immediate environment. This detail has been conveniently ignored by project naysayers.
