Feature Story Supplement: Poisoned Well

A map showing monitoring wells installed in Northwest Wellfield to track the benzene contamination, provided by the Department of Environmental Resource Management (DERM). The yellow dot circled here is Monitoring Well 109. Wedged directly between two mining "lakes" - blasting pits that have filled with water - it showed the highest levels of benzene ever recorded in the wellfield, and led Water and Sewer director Bill Brant to believe that the contamination was coming from property leased by the miners.