Groundwater is tested beneath half of these big landfills, and the rest are exempt from this testing for various reasons. In Grand County for example, the landfill is built on a 5,000-foot layer of impermeable shale, so there is no groundwater within the dump's reach that can be contaminated.

"Our No. 1 concern with landfills and garbage is groundwater contamination," Bohn said. Methane gas emissions and rodent control are also major headaches for Bohn's department.

Four landfills — including a dump in Davis County operated by the same group that runs the incinerator there — have failed preliminary groundwater tests and are under close observation by state environmental officials.

In Washington County, Duchesne, the Trans-Jordan Landfill and Davis County, officials have discovered high levels of metals and organic elements, and inappropriate "water chemistry," Bohn said. All four sites are being assessed by the division.

In Spanish Fork, waterfowl living in Utah Lake marshland became sick in areas near its landfill turned master-planned community. Test results of water draining from the landfill into the wetlands show contamination. Arsenic. Lead. Chromium. Cadmium.

The state recognizes these concerns. Bohn says there are dozens of unlined landfills statewide that could allow poisonous leachate — groundwater contaminated by underground garbage — to seep into lakes, streams and drinking water.

"We do have landfills out there," Bohn said, "that are polluting and that have impacted the groundwater."

Dioxin and cancer

But landfills have not seen scrutiny like Wasatch Energy's incinerator.

Wasatch Energy has initiated some health-risk assessment tests and taken samples of from soil and a milk-producing goat nearby.

The tests, all funded by Wasatch Energy, are designed to ease public fears and prove the plant's dioxin emissions are not damaging the public health. The tests and health assessments, however, are written in scientific jargon and aren't well understood by the general public.

State Department of Air Quality director Rick Sprott has been central in Utah's dioxin debate. His department is criticized both by residents who say the state is too lax with Wasatch Energy and incinerator officials who say they are unfairly targeted. "There has been a lot of public concern," he said.

The brain cancer issue is two-fold: Is there a cancer cluster around the incinerator, and, if so, is dioxin to blame?