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GREENSBORO — The state has begun an environmental investigation of an old landfill in northeast Greensboro.

And it’s not the White Street one.

The results of soil, water and gas tests will be used by public health officials to study whether the E.H. Glass landfill could be making residents sick. Crews from the engineering firm S&ME have been working at the site this week. Test results will be back within the next few months. The public health research won’t be complete for at least a year.

“We are doing this because we think it should be done. We should just do a thorough job. People should expect the state to do a thorough job,” said Mina Shehee of the state Department of Health and Human Services.

Residents have long worried that the Glass landfill — and the neighboring city-run White Street Landfill — could be making people sick.

Compared to the city landfill, which undergoes regular testing, relatively little is known about the private landfill.

The Glass landfill, on Nealtown Road, was operated in the 1960s and ’70s.

It’s unclear what might be buried there, although some records show it may have been used to bury Vicks Co. products.

The land is now split into three parcels with three separate owners.

Plans by one of the owners — Fresh Start Ministries — to build a church there prompted the state to start its research. The city will not issue a building permit for the church until the state sorts out the environmental questions.

“It’s our responsibility to determine if there are public health risks or risks to the environment, and then to mitigate those to limit the ability of some of the hazardous things out there to harm people’s health,” said Jamie Kritzer, a spokesman for the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

S&ME crews will test the area for landfill gases such as methane.

They also will drill 19 temporary wells. Water samples will be tested for potential contaminants such as metals, ammonia and sulfates.

Depending on the results, more investigation may be required, Kritzer said.

The DHHS will use the information collected as part of a planned health study.

The department already studied historic cancer data in the area — around the White Street and Glass landfills — and found higher rates of pancreatic cancer than expected. But it didn’t conclude that the landfill was the cause.

For the latest study, health researchers will analyze groundwater, soil, surface water and gas data. They will determine if the landfill site contains any contamination at levels that could harm people.

They also will look at whether there are any private wells in the area — one way residents could potentially come in contact with tainted material.

“There has never really been much evaluation of that site. If somebody wants to build on it and there will be people around it, we need to know,” said Sandy Mort, from DHHS.

Pastor R.K. Maddox said the work crews had already finished up on the church’s property.

He said as soon as the state gives the go-ahead, Fresh Start Ministries is ready to build a sanctuary and several classrooms on its portion of the land.

Contact Amanda Lehmert at 373-7075 or amanda.lehmert@news-record.com