Will County worried about new dumping rules
By Jon Seidel jseidel@suntimes.com October 24, 2011 5:12PM
A truck enters a dumping facility Monday at 119th Street and Naperville-Plainfield Road in Plainfield. | Matthew Grotto~Sun-Times Media
Updated: November 26, 2011 8:17AM
Had Chicago won its bid to host the 2016 Olympic games and embarked on a massive city clean-up, Will County Executive Larry Walsh suspects his county’s quarries would have become host to a lot of leftover dirt.
That Olympics bid failed, of course, but debris from Chicago construction and demolition sites still finds its way to the suburbs, including many former quarries now used as dump sites. Regional environmentalists want to make sure it’s not tainting the suburban groundwater.
So does Walsh.
He said his staff will be watching Tuesday when the Illinois Pollution Control Board hears testimony at the Thompson Center in Chicago. They’ll be talking about rule changes offered by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for the handling of rubble, broken concrete and other leftovers from road construction, building demolition and similar projects.
Jen Walling, executive director of the Illinois Environmental Council, said quarries don’t properly protect the groundwater from contaminants that might be found in that rubble and debris. She’d rather see it dumped in landfills, where a clay liner would collect leaking water and keep it out of the groundwater supply.
“We think that it poses a very serious risk to groundwater contamination,” Walling said of the IEPA’s plan.
But Doug Clay, manager of the IEPA’s land pollution control division, said the proposed rules should offer several safeguards — including groundwater monitoring — to make sure the soil is safe and not leaking contaminants into the water supply.
The agency was required by law to come up with the proposal, which it filed at the end of July. One hearing has already been held in Springfield.
One of the agency’s goals is to finally define what material is considered “uncontaminated” when it reaches quarries or mines. Until recently the word has been open to interpretation, he said.
The IEPA also wants owners of sites only accepting soil to begin testing every load that comes in to make sure it meets the new “uncontaminated” standard. That’s already begun under a set of interim rules, Clay said.
Finally, Clay said a professional engineer would need to sign off on the quarry owners’ groundwater testing. Walling and Dean Olson of Will County’s Land Use Department said they’re worried because those tests would be self-implemented.
“That really leaves it up to the operator to decide whether or not they’re exceeding,” Olson said.
But Clay said that’s because the groundwater monitoring is a final check. He said the IEPA will want to see the reports from the testing whenever the agency decides to pay a visit.
“When we go out and do an inspection, that’s exactly what we look at,” Clay said.
Walsh said he sees several suggestions from Will County officials reflected in the IEPA’s proposal, so he thinks it’s on the right track. But he also said he’d like to see more safeguards to protect the water around Will County’s 10 or so quarries.
“Out here in Will County,” he said, “a huge portion of us forever are going to have to rely on groundwater as our water source. We’re not going to get Lake Michigan water.”
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