LOWELL | Caught between conflicting reports from county and state officials on the toxicity of the Feddeler Landfill, about 50 residents came out Thursday to get answers.

West Creek Township Trustee/Assessor Rick Niemeyer said he gave the residents what he had.

Niemeyer met Thursday morning in Indianapolis with officials from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to get the most recent update on the shuttered construction and demolition landfill located on the north side of Ind. 2 immediately west of Lowell.

Residents said they spotted trucks carrying fill to the site, which Lake County Commissioner Gerald Scheub said was fenced off last fall at the suggestion of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after airborne contaminants were detected.

Niemeyer said the trucks were authorized by IDEM to haul dirt for cover in from the Meadowbrook subdivision in Lowell.

When resident Bruce Metz asked whether the fill is being monitored and how often, Niemeyer suggested that someone could go to the site and ask for a copy of the monitoring sheets. He said he was told that the fill was being inspected.

Although residents were told they could have their well water tested by environmental officials only a handful responded.

Don Bales, Sr., who operates Don Bales, Inc. at 10102 W. 181st (Ind. 2) next to the landfill, said he regularly has his well water tested and it is fine.

Scheub said he has been told the U.S. EPA and IDEM as well as SEH, the firm employed by the county to test the site last fall, will be there to conduct inspections and tests together in June.

State officials are scheduled to meet with residents about the landfill on April 10 at the Lowell Public Library.