Case Study: Charles Macon Drum Storage, North Carolina

From GeoClasses

Charles Macon Drum Storage, North Carolina

by: Ian Rochester

The Charles Macon lagoon and drum storage is a very interesting case because it seems that there could have further precautions taken to ensure peoples' safety. This site was used for dumping waste and oil reclamation. It covered over sixteen acres in Cordova, North Carolina.

In 1980, this place was very hazardous because eight out of the eleven lagoons that they used to dump there waste in were over flowing, and over 2,100 drums full of chemical wastes were found. Two years later under a State court order the owner of the property had to clean up the mess. A lot of the drums were thrown away and all but one of the lagoons was cleaned up. The main problem with the clean up was that many empty drums and other oil wastes were thrown into the remaining lagoon, and topped off with three feet of clay. I believe that this was a rushed clean up because the state and the owner of the property knew that there was a river a mile downhill, and at least five other forms of water were close by so why would you put those wastes under ground? Over 1,100 people used these resources for drinking water!

This was a huge waste site and the source of the pollutant was the thousands of drums, and the eleven lagoons filled with oil waste and other various toxins. It didn’t help the situation because there were so many water resources down grain and the toxins were running off into the people’s drinking water when it rained.

References

[1]

[2]