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A mobile home park in Ithaca built on a dump in the 1970s is undergoing investigation by the Department of Environmental Conservation to detect whether contaminants in the area’s groundwater are a potential hazard to residents’ health and a source of toxic leakage into the town water supply.

Casey Martin

Several years ago on Mother’s Day, Esther Herkowitz, tried to plant rose bushes in memory of her mother and grandmother. Instead of soil, she hit cement, metal bits and rebar.

“That was when I found out that I bought a mobile home on an unkempt toxic dump,” she said.