A Greenwood city landfill, closed more than 30 years, has people living around it speaking out.

When we hear companies talk about the jobs and money that they will bring to various areas of the state if they could only build a new garbage incinerator or receive a permit for a new landfill, those companies never talk about the costs that those operations will leave behind for the cities and people who are left to clean up when those companies are long gone.

While it may be that there are no people in the College Heights community who are using ground wells for their drinking water, is any of the arsenic or lead making its way into our waterways?

Neighbors in the College Heights Community say they remember the landfill in operation from the 1940s to the 1970s and now worry about what be left behind in the ground.

Reports from the South Carolina Health and Environmental Control show the agency did test the soil six to eight inches deep, finding elevated levels of 13 compounds, including arsenic and lead. The report states that those metals were associated with the area around old tanks and drums.

Charlie Barrineau, Greenwood City Manager, said now the city is developing a clean-up plan, will remove the drums and do more testing on the soil underneath.

Barrineau said those results will determine if further clean-up is needed.

But Malessa Dorch, who grew up in the community, wants tests done much deeper into the ground.  "You might have to go 50 to 100 feet to find the height of the contamination and that's what we want them to do," said Dorch. "We need some answers."

DHEC reports state deeper testing is not needed since no one in the area has used well water since the 1950s. The reports also state there is no need for air quality tests.

Barrineau said they've only found evidence that the landfill was used for construction materials, but admits it was opened many years before there were regulations on dumping.