Sanbornton dump piles, again

Town officials still aren’t sure exactly what it is, but the pile of odorless, dirt-like substance found at the new town cemetery on Tower Hill Road last week is not any form of harmful sludge.

At Wednesday’s night meeting in the town offices, Selectboard Chairman Patsy Wells said there is absolutely no evidence that the pile of material, which is now covered by couple of blue tarps, is what people commonly refer to as “sludge” — that is, some kind of wastewater treatment material.

“I don’t know what it is but I think it’s some form of fertilizer,” said selectman Andrew Livernois of the moist, black material that has a the crumbly look of a breakfast cereal.

Wells said that cemetery trustee Peter Hibberd had ordered some fertilizer a while ago for the new cemetery. So far, town officials have not been able to connect with Hibberd to verify exactly what the material is but they are of no danger to the town’s underground water supply, she said.

Wayne Elliot of the Department of Public Works reported that samples of the materials had recently been brought down to two major hardware/garden good stores and they appeared to be exactly the same as the

fertilizers sold there.

The issue was brought to the attention of the Selectborad last week when Planning Board Chairman Helmut Busack reported finding the piles of unidentified materials left on the four-acre lot recently cleared to become the town’s first cemetery. Busack also said he found piles of manure on adjacent (Class VI) Rufus Colby Road and a large pile of tree stumps — apparently from the cemetery grounds — on private property across the road.

Busack brought in the brown liquid sample of what he called “sludge” to the Selectmen. He said it looked

like Coca-Cola.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the Selectboard was glad to report that the “sludge” was not anything that could

be harmful to underground water sources. In fact, the board questioned Busack’s contention that

the ground around the cemetery is unusually wet and, therefore, any harmful materials there could leak into

the underground water table.

Livernois said he walked around the area and did not find it uncommonly moist, given the harsh rainfalls of

recent weeks. “It’s kind of muddy but it’s a not what I’d call a wetlands.”

“It’s a pretty flat area up there so I’d guess there would be some water on the ground,” said selectman

Steve Ober. “I have water on some flat parts of my property that have never had any before.”

“We’ve had two 50-year rainfalls in two weeks,” Chairman Wells added.

Elliott said he’d spoken to Bill Tobin, who helped clear the stumps off the property that was formerly at the edge of the town forest, and Tobin reported no special problems with his equipment working on the land related to mud.

(Wells said that the town’s agreement with Tobin called for the municipality to remove the stumps and

chip them up sometime in the future.)

Elliott also said that he raised corn and had farm animals in the area for years and never had any problem with the water. He ended the conversation by noting that any large piles of manure that may have been up there have

dissipated.