It’s time for dirt to fly again at Ft. Sheridan as construction crews arrived Monday to resume working on a $17 million project aimed at stopping two old Army garbage dumps from leaking into Lake Michigan.
“It’s construction season,” said Colleen Reilly, spokeswoman for the U.S. Army. “We’re glad to see contractors back on site and get the project moving again.”
Work began last September to halt the daily flow of 14,400 gallons of liquid waste into the lake from a broken storm drain running under landfills 6 and 7–located on 13 acres adjacent to property used by the U.S. Navy for housing.
Crews from Denver-based Stone & Webster Engineering Corp. demolished two World War II-vintage barracks and installed part of a new 36-inch storm drain before bad weather halted the project in December.
Workers will finish encircling the garbage dumps with the new storm drain by midsummer, Reilly said, then start construction on a leachate collection and treatment system.
By the end of summer, Reilly said, workers expect to “cut off that pathway to the lake” by plugging the drain from which wastes have been flowing into Lake Michigan, a source of drinking water for metropolitan Chicago.
The material leaking from the landfills will then be collected by the new sewer system, treated and sent to the North Shore Sanitary District for final treatment and disposal.
After about two or three years of draining an estimated 30 million to 50 million gallons of liquid from the garbage dumps, the Army will cover them with clay and convert them into a lake front park and soccer field by 2001 or 2002.
The two dumps were filled from the 1940s to 1979 with the Army’s garbage, construction debris and liquid wastes. Rain and melting snow continue to soak the dumps.
The project was hailed by federal environmental officials last year as the first major environmental cleanup since the Army announced it was closing the 700-acre base 10 years ago.
The Army designated 425 acres of the fort as surplus property, and much of that already has been sold or given to Highland Park, Highwood and the Lake County Forest Preserve. The Army Reserves and the Navy still use the other 275 acres.
Early in March, the Army gave the deed and the keys for the fort’s 140-acre historic district to Highland Park and Highwood for development into housing. The two suburbs paid $5.75 million for the property last summer.
With that historic turning point behind them, Reilly said, officials now will turn their attention to environmental investigations on the 275 acres used by the Army Reserve and the Navy.
“Federal law requires each military base to conduct environmental investigations based on historical uses, regardless of whether the site is transferred (to other owners) or not,” Reilly said.
Reviews at Ft. Sheridan were first conducted on land that was to be transferred to new owners.
Those reviews began in 1991, and were mostly completed by 1994. The aim was to ensure that the Army did not leave behind dangerous materials, like unexploded ammunition or chemical wastes, that could pose a hazard to the new owners.
“Now we will continue on existing base property,” Reilly said. “The last time we discussed Navy and Army property was about a year ago.”
The Ft. Sheridan Restoration Advisory Board, consisting of local citizens and government officials, will meet May 27 to consider a new round of environmental investigations at the fort.
