Between November 10, 1995 and December 27,1995, (the same time period the sludge sicknesses and the death in Greenland, NH, occurred) 35 loads of lime stabilized Class B Sewage sludge were dumped on the Viel farm fields in Rollinsford, NH.
(No public hearing hadbeen held in Rollinsford. The hearing did not occur until March 1996.)
The sludge stockpiles were not covered, and neighbors say the odor was horrific when the spring thaw set in. The wind blows directly to a densely populated residential area near the fields.
One field is about 500 feet from a secondary town watersupply. Rollinsford has had problems with fecal coliform in drinking water.
School teacher Diane St. Germain of Barnstead, NH (603-269-7851) researched Rollinsford town records and talked with neighbors of the sludge sites and found the following clusters of sickness and death:
The brother of the operator of the Viel fields died in early June 1996.
Spring of 1996 - a 4 year old girl (abutter) begins a round of infections that antibiotics don't help. Several trips were made to Child's Hospital in Boston. Child still has gastrointestinal problems with viruses, etc. Immune system problems persist.
14 year old girl who lives near the site was diagnoses with a tumor on her ovary after the sludge was spread. Surgery was necessary to remove the tumor.
1996 - woman abutter was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. (She had never received a notice of the sludging.)
1999 - a man three houses down from the woman with Parkinsons was also diagnosedwithParkinsons. (Parkinsons is related to zinc, copper, mercury, alkylated phosphates and organochlorides.)
An abutter to the fields died in July 1996.
The operator of the Viel farm died himself in January 1997.
Another abutter died in February, 1997.
Another abutter died in March 1997.
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