Landfill Threatens Water Supply

City leaders asserted that Massachusetts environmental officials overlooked the vulnerability of Fall River's water supply when they approved the expansion of a 110-acre landfill. Contamination from the dump, run by Ferris Browning, could seep into underground aquifers through cracks in the subterranean bedrock around the landfill, however, in issuing the permit officials from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection suggested that they had seen no evidence of such a threat. "They simply ignored the study that the city conducted over six months," the town?EUR??,,????'???s lawyer said, "and it's really unconscionable." Last year, the city's Board of Health tried to shut down the dump by refusing to sign off on the expansion plan. A Superior Court judge overruled that decision. The issue awaits the decision of an appeals court. Officials have promised to bring DEP's decision, which is a separate matter, before a Superior Court judge.