Deep Well Infection

Ultimately the future of deep well injection will end up in the courts. It's just a matter of who sues first. “I'm hearing noise out there that the utility boys are going to sue us,” says the EPA's Richard Harvey.

Ruhl says environmentalists are ready. She believes both politicians and bureaucrats have failed the public. “The entire process was dishonest,” she says. “It will definitely end up in court; there's no question of that.”

Photos by Steve Satterwhite

The county first discovered the contamination through a monitoring well in 1994

Photos by Steve Satterwhite

The county first discovered the contamination through a monitoring well in 1994

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More About

• Alan Farago
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• Donald McNeill
• Nature and the Environment
• Environmental Issues and Protection

Given the huge economic and public health interests at stake, leaving deep well injection's fate to impartial judges and juries might be the only way to resolve the issue. “Down here, sometimes that's what it takes to move things along,” notes Harvey.