DuPage may take fresh look at former landfills

Nearly two decades have passed since DuPage County Forest Preserve officials created a master plan to transform two shuttered garbage dumps into recreation havens.

The question now is whether residents still want toboggan runs, cross-country ski trails, mountain bike challenge courses and other similar amenities at the Greene Valley landfill near Naperville and the Mallard Lake landfill near Bloomingdale and Hanover Park.

Finance Director Jack Hogan said the forest preserve district long ago budgeted $24 million to pay for dozens of recreational improvements to the now-closed landfills. Greene Valley closed in 1996, and Mallard Lake in 1999. The $24 million is part of roughly $220 million that was set aside in the event of any environmental problems caused by the landfills.

But because the planned upgrades were approved almost 20 years ago, forest preserve commissioners haven't talked about those ideas in recent years.

"I think it's important that we come back and take a look at these," Hogan said to commissioners this week during a discussion about the district's capital improvement plan.

Forest Preserve President D. "Dewey" Pierotti, who held that position when Greene Valley and Mallard Lake closed, said the plan for the landfills was drafted after the district consulted with neighbors in both areas.

Pierotti suggested it might be time to go back to the neighbors of Greene Valley and Mallard Lake and ask what recreational activities they would like to see.

"I think it would behoove this board to have new meetings and institute more input from the residents of those areas," Pierotti said. "Because the residents that were very vocal and instrumental in making the decisions or the recommendations then are different from the ones that exist now."

Getting that fresh input, Pierotti said, would help commissioners make an informed decision about what they would like to see as an end use of the trash-filled hills, which are among the highest points in the county.

"There's all kinds of new activities that, in the past 20 years, have come forward," Pierotti said. "Maybe they should be considered as an end use of those landfills."

Joseph Benedict, director of environmental services, said the district already has spent more than a $1 million constructing a road to the top of Greene Valley. As a result, people who visit the hill on weekends between April and October can drive to the top and enjoy the view.

At Mallard Lake, about $2.3 million has been spent on reconfiguring the entrance road and the parking lots, officials said.

Benedict said new amenities will need to incorporate the preserves where the hills are located. "You can't suddenly take 300 acres and put a Disneyworld on them and expect the rest of the preserve to exist the way it is," he said.