Could You Be Living on Top of a Landfill?

You may not realize it but if you are living in a new apartment complex you could be living on top of an old landfill. Your first reaction may be that’s ok as long as they buried everything properly. However landfills can be very dangerous to people’s health, no matter how deep stuff is buried into the ground.

This is why it is important for people to invest age the property on which their apartment is built. Many researchers think that it is communities like this that are being built on top of old landfills and old chemical disposal sites those women are having miscarriages and experiencing birth defects. People don’t usually think about finding out what the land was used for before apartments were placed there. This is something that most people only do when they are considering purchasing a home. It is very easy to investigate what land used to be since everything is made to be public record. Some of the problems are that when these sites were landfills many had no liners and no groundwater monitoring systems. This means that the ground and water could be seriously contaminated. Many researchers have also stated that leaving near or on these types of landfills can increase a person risk of cancer. Also many researchers have found that most of these landfills contained toxic waster. That is probably because most of the everyday household items that many of us use contain these toxic chemicals.

The problem also is that contractors are always looking for some land where they can place this huge apartment building and charge a large amount of money for them. Many of them do whatever it takes to secure the land for the building. Of course they will assure you that they have had the ground and water tested in those areas and that everything is safe. Most of the time they will not inform those who are looking to rent there that the site used to be a land fill years ago. If you visit your local county office you should be able to find out where the information is that will tell you what the property used to be used for. This way before you and your family rent a particular place you will be able to determine if it is safe or potentially harmful for your family to live there. The bottom line is not to assume but to make sure that you do your research on any land before you choose to live on it.