Deadline extended for final report on Land & Lakes Landfill

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that the decision deadline for the post-closure care certification for the Land and Lakes Wheeling Landfill has been extended to Jan. 10, 2012.

Maggie Carson, spokeswoman for the IEPA in Springfield, said, however, that if something comes to the agency’s attention that allows it to make a decision sooner, it will.

When a landfill stops taking waste, the IEPA does not consider it closed until a post-closure care period has been completed, when the landfill is required to ensure that any potential long-term environmental issues have been addressed.

For example, there must be groundwater monitoring and checking to see if it is properly capped.

Land and Lakes closed in 1995 and the village of Buffalo Grove had planned to develop the property at 1300 Milwaukee Ave.

But former Trustee Lisa Stone raised warnings about possible environmental hazards at the landfill, which were vehemently denied by Land and Lakes officials.

After a hearing in Buffalo Grove last year, the IEPA to decided to extend the post-closure period. Since then, Land and Lakes has installed extra groundwater monitoring equipment.

The decision to extend the period to January came at the request of Land and Lakes, Carson said.

She said the request was made after IEPA officials, when reviewing the last submission of groundwater data, expressed concern over the integrity of one of the samples. She said there were apparently problems during the sample collection process.

Land and Lakes will use that extension period to address those issues.

“The Illinois EPA wants to ensure that all of these issues have been addressed. We want to do it correctly now. We don’t want to leave any problems for future generations,” Carson said.