Buffalo Grove's Stone pleased with IEPA landfill hearing
After nearly a year of repeatedly calling attention to her concerns of potential environmental hazards at the Land and Lakes Landfill, Buffalo Grove Village Trustee Lisa Stone declared herself satisfied after an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency hearing on the site Tuesday night.
But Stone, whose frequent calls for more testing of the site at 1300 Milwaukee Ave. created some of the tension that led to her historic recall last week, said she will continue to keep on eye on landfill developments.
“I think it went very well and I'm grateful that the light is being shined on this situation,” she said after the hearing attended by a crowd of about 70.
Stone, who was among more than 20 people testifying at the hearing, urged state officials to leave groundwater monitors in place, because of findings of the chemical phenol in monitoring wells.
“How can you put that to bed and say, ‘We're not going to check. We're not going to find out the source of it and if there are other problems'?” she asked. “Because when you pull the plug, the only way you find out in the future is the hard way.”
The landfill closed May 30, 1995, and is at the end of a 15-year monitoring phase that could be extended to 30 years by the IEPA.
Stone was the only trustee from the village to speak, although several others were in attendance at the hearing. Trustee Jeffrey Braiman initially signed up to speak, but later said he had no reason to address the hearing.
“This is the purview of the EPA,” he later said. “That's what they are charged with by the Illinois Constitution. It's not the responsibility of the village or the village board. We don't have that expertise.”
Stone's legal representative, Amanda Kimmel from the Chicago Legal Clinic's environmental law clinic, also urged the continuation of monitoring at the site, noting that there are 30 private wells and nine community water supply wells near the facility.
James Cowhey, the president of Land and Lakes, reaffirmed his goal to develop the property into a prime retail development, and stressed that he has worked diligently with the village to do that over a seven-year period.
Developing the approximately 60 acres, he said, would add more than 500,000 square feet of retail space, create hundreds of jobs and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in sales tax revenues.
Tuesday's hearing was the first of its kind on post-closure care completion, IEPA officials say. While the hearing was not televised, a video recording of the proceedings can be viewed at dailyherald.com.
The IEPA will accept written comments on the landfill for 30 days after the hearing if postmarked by midnight Dec. 9. Comments may be e-mailed to epa.publichearingcom@illinois.gov, with the subject header “Land and Lakes Wheeling Landfill.”
The decision whether to grant the landfill's application to end monitoring of the site is expected by Jan. 15, 2011, although it could be postponed.