dump life
A Nassau County family learns the hard way that their
biggest investment was built on a lie
by Susan Eastman
Bill
Sexton
and
his
wife
Patricia
packed
up
their
belongings at the beginning of November and just flat
out
abandoned
they've
paying
owned
an
the
in
two-acre
Yulee
$800-a-month
lot
since
and
1995.
mortgage
for
the
triple-wide
After
nine
their
Miner
years
Road
homestead, the Sextons are renters again.
It wasn't an easy decision for the family. After living
uneasily in Jacksonville for more than 20 years, the
Sextons bought their Yulee lot to get closer to nature.
They
loved
the
shade
of
the
live
oaks,
the
natural
wetlands on the northern edge of their land, the nightly
chorus of croaking frogs. After years of hard work and
frugality, Bill Sexton (who owns a tire repair business)
and Patricia (a waitress at Shoney’s for 18 years) had
achieved their dream.
The couple eventually hoped to build a cabin on the
land.
They
landscaped
the
yard
with
$2,000
worth
of
plants. "We had big plans for the place when we first
moved in," Sexton says.
But once the Sextons decided to leave, they couldn't get
out fast enough. So eager are they to be rid of the
land,
they’re
hoping
their
bank
forecloses
on
the
property. “They can have it,” says Patricia. “We don’t
want it.”
The reason for their change of heart is buried in the
earth beneath their home. Two years ago, a developer
began installing water and sewer lines across the street
from the Sextons’ home. The digging hadn’t progressed
very
far
when
crews
hit
huge
quantities
of
buried
garbage in the right-of-way. It was the first inkling
the Sextons had that their land might be near a garbage
dump. The discovery stopped the work cold. But several
months
later,
for
reasons
that
are
still
unclear,
county’s
chief
administrator
allowed
the
project
to
continue. The contractor scooped out the garbage that
was in his way and hauled it to a landfill. He then
pumped
all
the
fluid
that
had
accumulated
under
the
dump, a contaminated liquid known as leachate, into the
Sextons’ wetland.
Though the Sextons didn’t know what the fluid contained,
they say that shortly after pumping started, the nightly
cacophony
of
frog
calls
stopped
--
and
a
plague
of
illnesses overtook the family. From general malaise to
full
body
rashes
and
birth
defects
in
their
grandchildren, the Sextons believe the contents of the
dump have permanently compromised their health.
After nearly two years of research, the Sextons’ have
found a compelling history for their claim. They believe
they are living on top of an old county dump and that
their property is contaminated. Although the couple has
received
assurances
from
the
Nassau
County
Health
Department and the Nassau County Board of Commissioners,
the Sextons say their illnesses tell a different story.
Bill Sexton says it hurt to leave, but he only thinks of
returning to Miner Road to hammer a sign into the yard
in front of his old home. It will read, "This property
and all the surrounding land is contaminated."
For a place that's quiet most of the time, Miner Road
was a hectic place in the summer of 2002. The Nassau
County School Board had built a new middle school down
the
street
August,
from
the
construction
Sextons
property
equipment
crept
and,
along
throughout
the
road,
laying water and sewer lines to the school. The Sextons’
granddaughter, Cheyenne, was fascinated by the roaring
equipment and she liked the white cowboy hat that the
owner
of
R.J's
Underground
Utilities
always
wore.
Sexton, the doting granddad, would carry the 18-monthold up to the road to watch the action.
“There’s not a whole lot going on around here,” Sexton’s
24-year-old daughter Ginger explains with a laugh. At
the time, Ginger was living with her parents while she
awaited the October 2002 birth of her second daughter.
Sexton and Cheyenne were watching the excavation on June
11
when R.J.’s crew hit a load of buried debris. At
first Sexton was shocked by the find. Later, he’d be
scared.
After R.J.’s found the garbage, Sexton began asking old
timers about the area’s history. He learned that people
called the land the Yulee Dump, and they tagged the road
now
known
as
Miner
Road,
Dump
Road.
Several
people
described the landfill as an area as large a football
field,
and
that
likely
included
his
property.
Sexton also heard that the dumpsite wasn’t just used for
household
trash.
Old
timers
told
him
that
Rayonier
spread paper mill spread waste sludge on the land and
buried 55 gallon drums of formaldehyde there when the
company owned 900 acres of land there.
“Absolutely
untrue,”
said
Rayonier
spokesman
Mike
Hall. Rayonier faxed a letter they sent to Sexton in
July 2004. The company used their land to grow trees,
not to bury waste. Residents sometimes dumped trash on
Rayonier’s property, without permission, and on a large
piece of land the company didn’t own near the Sexton’s
home.
Rayonier
even
enlisted
the
help
of
the
Nassau
County Sheriff’s office to prevent the illegal dumping,
Hall said. As for the sludge, company’s mills didn’t
produce solid waste until 1976 and the company didn’t
spread it near Miner Road. The letter also explained
that
sludge
is
not
harmful.
The
company
uses
it
to
fertilize its trees. Rayonier sold their Miner Road land
in 1979. As for environmental culprits Rayonier pointed
out that there was a bag manufacturing plant, a metal
fabricator, an airfield, and other industrial facilities
in the area at one time.
While Bill Sexton gathered the history of the land,
Patricia logged onto the Internet to learn as much as
she could about landfills and the risks associated with
them. Even before their wetlands were flooded with the
landfill
lechate,
the
family
had
registered
weird
happenings on their property. Shortly after the couple
moved into triple-wide, Bill Sexton began suffering from
itchy rashes that covered him from head to toe.
Their well water smelled strange, too -- sometimes like
diesel fuel, other like a stagnant fish tank. After a
fiber-optic
cable
was
installed
in
the
neighborhood,
Patricia says the well water turned the toilet and the
bathtub black. Almost all of the landscaping the couple
planted when they first moved in died, and they could
never could get grass to grow on their lawn.
But
the
most
alarming
health
problems
afflicted
the
couple's daughter and her two children. In the summer of
2002,
Ginger
lived
with
her
parents
when
she
was
pregnant with second daughter, Cyerra. In her seventh
month, in August 2002, the baby's placenta detached from
Ginger's uterus and she was ordered to bedrest. Ginger
says her doctor accused her of using drugs, but the 24year-old insists that’s not the case. She did, however,
drink copious amounts of well water during that period
because
she
always
felt
thirsty.
When
her
daughter
Cyerra was born on Oct. 31, 2002, the left side of her
body was smaller than the right side. Ginger herself was
recently diagnosed with uterine cancer. And Cheyenne,
who will be four in February, has suffered in her own
way.
Both
Ginger
and
Cheyenne
are
afflicted
with
debilitating headaches that appear related to eruptions
that
appear
fluid.
on
their
Cheyenne's
skulls
doctor
filled
says
she
with
a
suffers
jellylike
from
a
"failure to thrive” and has effectively stopped growing.
Though she was 30 pounds when her grandfather carried
her down the driveway to watch Miner Road construction,
four years later she weighs five pounds less.
Her doctor originally thought she suffered an allergic
reaction to a Chicken Pox vaccine. Cheyenne broke out in
a rash after the vaccine and then for months afterward
had terrible bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. She would
collapse from dehydration. One time, Bill Sexton thought
she’d had died when she called his name, "Papa," then
fell to the
ground in front of him.
Once a vibrant
inquisitive child, the Sextons say she became listless
and
comfort-seeking.
Recently
doctors
removed
her
tonsils and adenoids because they were unusually large.
Asked about the wisdom of abandoning house and property,
Patricia Sexton says she has no regrets about leaving.
What are we losing?" wonders Patricia. "We're not losing
nothing. We've already lost."
The June 2002 discovery of buried garbage on Miner Road
initially caught the interest of the state Department of
Environmental
trash
can
Protection.
pose
a
public
Because
health
unearthing
hazard,
the
buried
state’s
regulatory oversight kicked in.
But the agency’s interest was surprisingly limited. On
Miner Road, DEP only concerned itself with the disturbed
area
in
the
right-of-way.
Although
Sexton’s
research
showed the dump covered a much larger area -- a position
confirmed by then-County Coordinator Walt Gossett, who
told County Commissioners the dump might be as big as a
"football field” -- DEP didn’t ask about the extent of
the contamination. They didn’t seem concerned, either,
with the fact that many area residents use well water
for
drinking
and
bathing
--
water
that
could
be
contaminated by the landfill.
The state did require Nassau County to come up with a
solutions to the problem, however. In June 2002, Nassau
County hired an environmental engineer to map out the
trash in the in the right-of-way and determine what it
contained. Gillette and Associates’ work was strictly
limited to the area in the path of the water and sewer
lines. The company bored holes into the ground to take
samples and scooped up loads of dirt to examine the
contents. In a July 2 report to the county, the company
concluded
the
debris
was
contained
in
a
30-foot-wide
stretch of right-of-way extending 450 feet on a north-
south line along Miner Road. The depth of the trash
ranged from four to greater than nine feet deep. Despite
the limited scope of its investigation, Gillette noted
that
the
debris
might
extend
onto
nearby
private
property -- owned by the Sextons.
Throughout
Gillette’s
granddaughter
staggering
excavation,
watched
amount
of
engineers
trash.
Sexton
sift
Tires,
oil
and
his
through
a
filters,
a
washing machine, automobile parts, roots, stumps, rocks,
toilets, glass, metal, tires, mattresses, even an entire
rusted automobile. "You name it, it was there," Sexton
says. "It was just pure garbage.”
Once the scope of the problem had been defined, the DEP
required county officials to submit a plan to deal with
it. The state required the county to remove the waste,
contain
the
surrounding
resulting
soil
water
odor
for
and
dust,
contaminants,
test
and
the
prevent
further leaching of contaminants. Under pressure to get
the water lines in place for the scheduled opening of
Yulee
Middle
School
in
January
2003,
County
Commissioners declared Miner Road an “emergency.” They
hired the Jacksonvillle-based environmental engineering
firm Golder Associates to develop a plan to deal with
the waste.
The plan, which had to be approved by both the county
and
state
before
regulators,
work
began
required
and
that
the
a
state
Golder
be
notified
scientist
or
environmental engineer be on site at all times during
the
excavation
contents.
The
in
air
order
was
to
to
monitor
be
tested
the
for
landfill’s
gasses
from
decaying material, and any questionable debris would be
tested for toxicity. After the garbage was removed, the
trench would be lined with a soft, impermeable fabric
designed to prevent groundwater contamination. Finally,
the trench would be filled with rocks, another layer of
fabric, and clean dirt.
The state OK’d the plan in late August 2002, but what
happened
next
Coordinator
remains
Walt
a
mystery.
Gossett
told
On
Oct.
R.J's
14,
County
Underground
Utilities to remove the trash and install the water and
sewer
lines.
dictates
of
Despite
the
the
carefully
state-approved
laid
excavation
plans,
the
order
were
completely ignored. DEP was not contacted. Neither was
Golder Associates, although the county had already paid
the firm $5,418 of their $10,500 contract to provide
project oversight. Odor and dust control measures were
nonexistent.
R.J.'s
simply
scooped
out
the
trash
and
hauled it to a county landfill in open dump trucks.
What’s
worse,
the
contractor
apparently
improvised
a
solution to deal with an unexpected amount of fluid.
R.J.'s
planned
to
install
the
water
and
sewer
pipes
after removing the trash, but as garbage was scooped
out, water filled the trench. To remove the water, the
contractor began pumping it into a ditch that fed into
the
Sextons’
land.
garbage-steeped
It
wasn't
groundwater,
just
either.
a
few
R.J's
gallons
pumped
of
for
more than two weeks straight, for 450 hours, according
to
County
Commissioner
Marianne
Marshall.
“It
was
millions of gallons,” Sexton says. At first he thought
the contractor was priming the new water main. But as
the water filled his swamp, flooded his yard, and began
rising toward the back door of his mobile home, he knew
his assumption was wrong. When a neighbor behind the
Sextons complained the water had just about flooded him
out of his home, Sexton spoke to R.J.’s. Owner Russell
Morgan
stopped
pumping
into
the
swamp,
but
he
began
pumping water onto property across the street, next to
the right of way. Unlike Sexton who wasn’t contacted
about
the
pumping,
owner
Richard
Miner
says
he
gave
Morgan permission
On
a
Sunday
pumping
afternoon
into
Marianne
Sexton’s
Marshall
shortly
before
wetlands,
pulled
into
Morgan
County
Sexton's
stopped
Commissioner
dirt
drive.
She’d been driving along Miner Road when she noticed the
flooding. She was immediately concerned. Marshall knew
that water in a landfill can contain toxic chemicals and
pose myriad health risks. She also knew that its removal
was tightly controlled by the state.
Marshall asked Sexton if he knew that the water was
“leachate.”
It
wasn't
a
term
the
53-year-old
Army
veteran knew, so Marshall referred to the fluid by its
common
solid
name:
“garbage
waste,
it
juice."
becomes
Any
leachate.
time
water
Because
touches
the
water
stews in decay and contaminants, it typically contains a
variety of poisons and chemicals.
Marshall was outraged by the pumping, and according to
Sexton, suggested he had reason to be concerned. She
left, but the day marked the beginning of a crusade for
both.
Marshall
was
determined
to
find
out
who
was
responsible. The Sextons wanted answers, too.
One
of
the
first
things
Marshall
did
after
leaving
Sextons property was to contact DEP. She wanted to know
why the county-approved plan was ignored and why DEP
wasn’t involved.
On Feb. 19, 2003, the state sent Nassau County a letter
asking for a detailed description of the waste removal
and
hinting
Coordinator
that
Walt
they
Gossett
might
impose
blithely
fines.
responded
County
that
the
contractor had pumped off lechate in order to lay the
water
and
sewer
lines.
DEP
sent
a
follow-up
letter
threatening to fine the county up $10,000 per day for a
variety of infractions.
According to DEP waste program administrator Michael J.
Fitzsimmons, the agency was particularly concerned about
the
removal
of
water
from
the
excavation
area.
The
leachate had been pumped into a swamp that feeds Lofton
Creek and many of the residents in the area use wells
for their water.
At a special County Commission meeting to discuss the
Miner
Road
screwup,
Marshall
presented
a
thick
book
detailing what had gone wrong and recalled the day she
visited Sexton’s property.
"I saw a pump that was pumping leachate," Marshall told
commissioners on March 5. "This is not water. This is
leachate that came from the hole where the solid waste
was. I'm goin' oh dear God, what is going on here?"
Marshall blamed County Coordinator. Gossett for ordering
R.J.’s to haul away the trash, knowing it didn't comply
with
the
state-approved
dismissal.
(Gossett
plan.
She
subsequently
called
retired
for
with
his
full
benefits.)
Marshall also noted at the meeting that residents like
Sexton feared their property was contaminated and their
health
compromised.
Marshall’s
Other
presentation.
commissioners
Sexton
attended
listened
part
of
to
the
meeting but had to leave when he received a call about a
flat
tire.
Several
of
his
neighbors
spoke
at
the
meeting, including an unidentified man at the meeting’s
close who hollered out, “Do you think it’s safe for us
to drink our water?”
“I’m not an environmentalist,” Commission Chair Vickie
Samus responded. “We’re not either,” someone yelled out.
Commissioner
Samus
said
she
didn’t
want
to
open
“Pandora’s Box” but wondered if the county should spot
test some wells. The County Commission decided to wait
and see what testing DEP wanted. In July 2003, Sexton
asked the Nassau County Health Department to test wells
in the neighborhood.
In order to answer DEP’s questions about the bungled
project,
the
county
hired
yet
another
environmental
engineering firm, Jacksonville-based Environeering Inc.
Almost a year after Gossett was fired, in Feb. 2004, DEP
approved
the
plan
the
county
submitted
developed
by
Environeering to test the area for toxins. In May, the
company set about testing the right of way for toxins
and installing several groundwater monitoring wells to
assess contaminants. One of the wells was located near
the
Sexton's
wetlands.
The
company
did
not
address
News
Leader
Miner
Road."
testing resident’s well water.
In
September,
announced,
"No
the
hazard
Fernandina
from
dump
Beach
under
Although Environeering’s tests found double the level of
arsenic that the federal Environmental Protection Agency
considers safe in a residential area and selenium in
amounts
above
acceptable
levels,
the
newspaper
paper
reported the Miner Road dump didn’t pose a health risk.
But the reassurances ring hollow. Toxic soil poses a
risk if people come into direct contact with it, usually
with soil found in the first two feet of the ground. The
arsenic-laden
sample
Environeering
didn’t
found
pose
a
six-feet
underground
risk
someone
to
on
by
the
surface, DEP’s Fitzsimmons explained. “The concern with
soil is direct exposure,” he said. “If it’s six feet
underground, it would be impossible to be exposed to
it.” But when R.J.’s removed the garbage from the rightof-way, they put fresh soil in it’s place. Environeering
wouldn’t find arsenic in great amounts on the surface of
the ground there because it’s clean fill. That’s why the
company took a sample six feet under, according to its
report. And Environeering’s tests didn’t explore what
might be on the surface on surrounding properties, nor
did DEP require it. Old landfills abandoned long before
the state stepped in to regulate them cover the state of
Florida, Fitzsimmons said. State guidelines dictate how
a landfill must be handled if buried waste is disturbed.
The guidelines say the disturbed area must be rehabbed
to meet current standards. “But generally, Fitzsimmons
said,
“we
complete
don’t
have
assessment
clear
of
authority
neighboring
to
areas
require
around
a
all
these dump sites.” Asked about the limits of the tests,
Environeering president Tim Rudolph said that landfills
can have dramatically different readings, depending on
what is buried where. The company tested where the state
wanted
testing
done.
“And
it
appeared
to
be
pretty
clean,” Rudoph said. “Period.”
Environeering’s
tests
may
not
have
given
much
reassurance to the Sextons, but they offered the county
some
cover.
The
state
DEP
didn't
see
anything
that
warranted further testing, and the Nassau County Health
Department didn't find any problems with the well water
in the area as well.
"The
results
don't
point
to
anything
we
have
to
address,” says county engineer Jose Deliz confidently.
“To
my
knowledge,
the
county
has
complied
with
all
required
investigations
and
beyond
that
I
don't
know
what else they want us to do."
On October 14, DEP punished Nassau County with a mere of
$5,000 for failing to maintain leachate control, failing
to notify the agency of the excavation and failing to
follow the excavation plan. As far as the county is
concerned, the case is closed.
Deliz hadn’t heard about the Sexton’s health worries,
but he suggests the ball is in their court. If they are
worried about they contents of the dump, he says, they
should hire someone to test the property.
However,
Sexton
believes
the
county
owes
Miner
Road
residents something more. He notes that many area old
timers
remember
the
landfill
as
a
county-run
dump.
County officials dispute this, but at least one current
county employee contacted by Folio Weekly says that he
worked at the site as a county employee in the late
1960s.
He
recalls
that
county
employees
dug
trenches
about 30 feet wide and 50-60 feet long so that residents
could dump their household trash into them.
Former County Commissioner and retired Florida Highway
Patrol officer Pete Cooper remembers the dump as well.
He says took bags of garbage to the dump when he first
moved to Yulee in the late 1960s and recalls the county
charging 20-50 cents a bag to dump trash.
Because there are no county records for the dump, Sexton
has been unable to persuade the county to do anything
more.
Initially,
he
hoped
Marshall
would
be
his
champion. But once Gossett retired and Environeering did
its work, he says, the commissioner lost interest. "She
wanted Gossett out,” he says. "She got what she wanted.”
Former County Commissioner Vickie Samus, who represented
Sexton's area of Yulee during the Miner Road fiasco,
believes Sexton has his facts wrong. "It wasn't a county
facility by any stretch of the imagination," she says.
But Samus’ version isn’t exactly reliable. She wrongly
claimed that the county determined the full extent of
the
waste,
removed
it
and
didn't
find
anything
of
concern. She also insists the Miner Road dump was a very
small area -- even though there is no evidence of this.
She further insists the county had no involvement in the
landfill ("The county didn't even know about it”) and
did its best to right Gossett’s blunder. "I think the
county stepped up to the plate and did everything we
could," says Samus.
"I don't mean to sound unsympathetic," she adds, "but
there is nothing to support his belief."
The
real
agrees.
little
says
estate
“I
personally
landfill
Ed
foolish"
broker
for
the
He
sold
don't
caused
Lawhon.
who
think
anybody
calls
Sextons
Sexton
it
to
his
anything
any
from
health
"penny-wise
abandon
property
that
problems,"
and
their
pound-
property.
"That doesn't seem to make sense that he would abandon a
place without doing some tests,” says Lawhon.
But given the troubled history of the land, and his own
family’s suffering, Sexton says he doesn't need to hire
anyone
to
tell
him
his
land
is
poisoned.
"It's
contaminated," he says. "We have no doubt in our minds."
Now that the Sextons have moved, he hopes the family
will begin to heal. They will also fight to prevent
another family from moving onto his property "We are
going to fight as hard as we can fight to keep somebody
else from moving on there and getting sick like we did."