'Garbage Juice' Seen As Threat To Drinking Water In Florida County

"To Waste Management, the nation's largest handler of garbage, the liquid that winds up at the bottom of a landfill is called 'leachate,' and it can safely be disposed of in a well that's 4,200 feet deep.

But to residents of mostly rural Jackson County, the stuff is just 'garbage juice,' and it carries a toxic taint that they don't want in their drinking water. Their allies include the NAACP, all five county commissioners and their Republican state senator.

'Everybody in Jackson County that wasn't making money off of it was against it,' said Sen. George Gainer, R-Panama City.

So now the Goliath-sized garbage company and the David-sized county are locked in a battle over whether underground disposal of pollution is safe. People in Jackson County (pop. 49,000) don't trust Gov. Rick Scott's Department of Environmental Protection. They see it as too business-friendly, too willing to kowtow to polluters in the name of generating jobs."

Craig Pittman reports for the Tampa Bay Times June 23, 2017.