Here are some more things to worry about . . .
In Georgia, it has been publicly acknowledged in the local newspapers (Atlanta-Journal Constitution for example) that the groundwater is also being contaminated from landfill seepage.
Yet the Governor has just diverted monies that were to go into correcting this problem into other projects, such as education(!). Evidently, if they get sick and die, or suffer brain problems from drinking contaminated water, that's okay.
Likewise, off the coast of Alabama, oil and gas rigs use barite to lubricate their drill bits. Barite often has mercury in it. When the companies replace the barite, they dump the old barite over the side into the Gulf of Mexico where it gets into the food chain.
In the Spring 2003 issue of NRDC's magazine, ON EARTH, there is an excellent article by Ben Raines on the use of mercury on off-shore rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, and how it winds up in the ocean and in its fish that people eat. I would simply steer you toward NRDC's website, but unfortunately, this particular article isn't available at their online site! (Though you can read a synoposis at
http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/03spr/toc.asp) Thus, I quote some paragraphs from it {from pages 26 and 27 of the ON EARTH, Spring 2003} :
"Oil and gas rigs, which use mercury-laden materials when drilling, appear to be an unusually dangerous soruce of mercury pollution in the Gulf of Mexico -- and one largely overlooked by regulators.
"The MOBILE REGISTER has found evidence of mercury contamination in a series of studies of pollution around Gulf oil and gas platforms. The studies were commissioned over the past two decades by the U. S. Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that oversees oil and gas production activities. Data from those studies strongly suggest that oil and gas rigs in the Gulf amount to islands of intense mercury contamination that could easily spread to fish and marine creatures. A study of one rig off the Texas coast indicated that mercury levels in the sediments beneath the platform were twelve times higher than the safe level for mercury in marine environments as set by EPA.
"In recent years, the rigs -- about 4,000 of them are now operating in the Gulf -- have become widely favored by commerical and recreational fishermen. For that reason, consumption of fish associated with the rigs may present a unique and potent pathway for mercury contamination in humans. . .
"The mercury is present in artificial drilling compounds -- called 'muds' because of their appearance -- that cool and lubricate drill bits as they bore thousands of feet under the ocean floor. Once used, the muds are pumped back to the rig platform and in most of the Gulf oil fields are simply dumped over the side. These muds are made up almost entirely of a heavy metal called barite. Unfortunately, barite deposts are often high in mercury, a fact acknowledged by EPA and the oil industry.
"Oil industry records and calculations indicate that more than billion pounds of these muds end up in the Gulf every year. Recent federal guidelines mandate that all barite used in drilling muds in U. S. waters must contain less than 1 ppm of merucry.
"But even under the new barite guidelines, more than 1,000 pounds of mercury could still be legally dumped from the 1,200 new wells drilled each year, according to REGISTER calculations. Regulators initially considered 'zero discharge' regulations for some of the drilling fluids before encountering stiff resistance and a lawsuit from the oil industry, which argued that it could not afford to haul used muds to shore, and that extra miles put on their tending boats would result in increased air poluution.
"In the end, EPA didn't enact the zero discharge policy; instead, it reduced the allowable mercury content in the drilling muds and ruled that no dumping be allowed on the fraction of oil and gas wells within 3 miles of shore." 
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