Hanover — Dartmouth College is scheduled to enter mediation in early May with a family whose well was contaminated by chemicals from the Rennie Farm, the school’s former burial ground for lab animals.

Although both parties declined to discuss the details of the negotiations, the affected residents said they are dissatisfied with the remedial effort surrounding the site, which this fall was discovered to have leaked a chemical solvent component into their nearby private well.

Richard Higgins, of 9 Rennie Road, said he hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep in months — not since September, when he learned that his water supply contained 1,4-dioxane, a substance classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as a probable human carcinogen.

“It is tiring. It is very, very consuming,” he said. “Everything to do with our daily life isn’t the same. … Our life is in limbo.”

Beginning in 2011, Dartmouth excavated thousands of pounds of test-animal carcasses buried at the Rennie Farm, which had been active in the 1960s; in 2012, the college discovered that the site near Hanover Center contained levels of 1,4-dioxane at many times the state standard for ambient water quality.

Working with the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, Dartmouth established a monitoring system, and this past fall conducted tests of surrounding private wells.

The Higginses’ well tested positive for 1,4-dioxane at twice the state standard.

In an interview Friday, Richard Higgins said he is frustrated that Dartmouth, when it found the contaminant back in 2012, had not warned neighors.

“I wish, more than anything, that when they had the original problem, they had notified us,” he said.

Higgins said he, his wife and his daughter had been drinking water from their own well before the test, and said he couldn’t stop thinking about what they might have consumed. “It just stays in your mind,” he said.

For their part, college officials have said that, at the time, the chemicals appeared not to be moving off-site. College representatives have highlighted Dartmouth’s efforts to help the affected residents, which included offering them bottled water, medical advice and a place to stay.

Dartmouth also offered to build the Higginses a new water supply — a proposal to which the family and their Norwich-based attorney, Geoffrey Vitt, objected, citing the location of the water system, which is on the southeast corner of the Rennie Farm property.

Nevertheless, college officials continued with the work, saying the Higginses would have the option to hook up to the system if they wished. 

College spokesman Justin Anderson confirmed Friday that the well had been installed, though he said additional construction was still needed to complete the water system. 

Anderson declined to say what terms Dartmouth might entertain in the mediation, including whether the college might agree to buy the Higginses’ property. 

Vitt, the residents’ attorney, previously had expressed interest in the college’s purchasing the land, saying it was worth discussing.

“We are not going to comment on the details of a confidential negotiation and mediation process,” Anderson said in an email Friday.

The school continues to monitor the spread of the underground plume that entered the Higginses’ well and make reports to state officials.

Dartmouth’s latest filing with the Department of Environmental Services says that water samples collected at 9 Rennie in January had roughly the same levels of 1,4-dioxane as this fall. 

Tests of surrounding wells showed concentrations of the contaminant below the reportable limit. 

Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or at 603-727-3242.