The Du Page County Forest Preserve Commission`s Landfill Committee on Thursday approved a $60,000 study of contamination surrounding the closed Blackwell Forest Preserve garbage dump near Naperville to determine whether a multimillion dollar cleanup is necessary.
The study, to be done by Warzyn Engineering Inc. of Madison, Wis., will assess health risks posed by possible contaminants in the ground, water and air surrounding the 40-acre dump, which was closed in 1973 and later placed on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund cleanup list.
After the study is completed next March, it goes to the EPA for approval. If approved, the study`s findings will be published and public hearings will be held by the EPA.
Once those hearings are finished, a cleanup could follow if the risk of death from any of the contaminants exceeds one in a million, said Peter Vagt, Warzyn`s project manager.
Earlier estimates concluded a cleanup would cost millions of dollars. The average Superfund cleanup costs $7 million.
The county Public Works Department operated the dump from 1965 to 1973. In the mid-1970s, leaks in the site were discovered, and about 10 years later contaminants were found in monitoring wells surrounding the site.
In 1984, a popular swimming lake near the dump was closed.
