For example, one study reported in the special issue involved a test pit Christy and several colleagues dug in Madison County to search for evidence of fractures. The pit was 33 feet wide by 82 feet long by 12 feet deep. Their analysis suggested that 7 percent of the ground area uncovered by the pit was affected by fractures. She and her colleagues are continuing their research, and plan to set up permanent test pits around the state. Researchers in Ohio first came together in the early 1990s to study fractures amid suspicions that cracks in the ground could be leaking contaminants into the ground water supply.
Landfills are usually capped and lined in order to contain waste.
But caps and liners break down, causing contaminants to leach into the surrounding soil, and many of the older landfills had no liners in the first place.