The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has scheduled a public hearing for Tuesday on a $12.6 million plan to clean up a leaky dump site on the federal Superfund list in unincorporated Kane County near Elgin.
The 66-acre site, which includes the Tri-County Landfill and the adjacent Elgin Landfill, is north of Dunham Road and is bordered on the east by Illinois Highway 25 and on the west by the Prairie Path and the active Woodland Landfill.
The hearing will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the South Elgin Village Hall, 10 N. Water St. A copy of the EPA`s cleanup proposal is available at the Borden Public Library, 200 N. Grove St., Elgin.
A four-year study has found that the dump is leaking a variety of contaminants, including heavy metals, methane gas, benzene, trichlorethene and vinyl chloride, an EPA report states. There is significant air pollution as well as pollution of surface and ground water.
Though no pollution has been found in the nearest public or residential wells, contaminated sediment has been located in wetlands south of the site, said David Seely, an EPA remedial project manager.
The landfills sit on top of three aquifers, one at about 50 feet, one between 50 and 100 feet and a very important deep aquifer which runs parallel to the Fox River, Seely said. Tests have shown only minute pollution in the deep aquifer, he said.
Though the EPA is presenting the public with cleanup alternatives, it prefers to basically confine the pollution to the site, Seely said.
To do that, the EPA proposes capping the area with 2 feet of low permeable clay covered with 8 inches of top soil for growing vegetation. The cap would limit the amount of water that would enter the soil, and
contaminants would generally dissolve and move off-site, Seely said.
To handle the polluted groundwater, the plan calls for a deep drainage system to collect the water to be treated by the Fox Valley Water Reclamation District and pre-treated, if necessary, on-site.
The escaping gas, which has not been thoroughly studied but contains methane, would be collected in extraction wells and treated on-site, the report states.
As a Superfund site, the land is eligible for federal funding for the cleanup, Seely said. However, he added, federal funds are limited, so the EPA will investigate whether certain responsible parties should pay for the cleanup.
The preliminary list of responsible parties includes Browning-Ferris Industries and Waste Management.
If all goes well, cleanup could begin in 1994.
