Western Lion and Service Disposal #1 Landfill Sites: Fact Sheet #2

              Western Lion and Service Disposal #1 Landfill Sites
Fact Sheet #2
May 2000
Charleston, Illinois
Background
After a history of environmental violations at the Western Lion and Service Disposal #1 Landfill sites,
the Illinois EPA learned in May 1994 that the owner/operator of the site had begun excavating a trench
in an area of buried waste without a permit. A temporary order from the Attorney General's Office
required all operations to stop by January 20, 1996. During an inspection by Illinois EPA in June 1997,
field personnel discovered that the open trench had filled with 35-40 feet of leachate (rainwater that
has traveled through the landfill and contacted waste). This leachate pit occasionally overtopped its
banks and flowed into the nearby Riley Creek, which is a Class "A" Stream.
The State of Illinois appropriated Illinois FIRST funds to correct the situation at the landfill, once the site
owner declared bankruptcy. During the summer and fall of 1999, the State of Illinois contracted work to
dewater the pit of leachate and fill it with construction debris and other clean fill material. More than
two million gallons of leachate were hauled to Mattoon's publicly-owned wastewater treatment plant for
treatment. The next step is to make corrections to the existing inadequate landfill cap on both sites.
What is the scope of the current work to be done at the site?
Bodine Environmental Services, the contractor for the State of Illinois, will install a new, protective clay
cap on the landfill sites (a total of 66 acres). The work that the State of Illinois has contracted includes:
1. Reshaping the surface grade on the landfills to improve the slopes for proper drainage;
2. Installing a landfill cap consisting of two feet of com- pacted clay, two feet of uncompacted clay
and six inches of top soil (seeded with various prairie plants);
3. Installing a fence around the entire site.
Under what authority is the State of Illinois contracting the work?
Section 300.430 (a)(iii)(B) of the National Contingency Plan (NCP) contains the expectation that
engineering controls, such as containment, will be used for waste that poses a relatively low long-term
threat or where removal or treatment is impractical. At municipal landfills, the up-front knowledge that
the source area will be contained facilitates such early actions as installation of a landfill cap or a
groundwater containment system as a remedy for leachate production that may contaminate
groundwater.
How will this cap be protective?
Because the cap will cause rainwater to flow off the landfill rather than into the landfill, the production
of leachate from the landfill should stop. Consequently, this is protective to both humans who enter the
site (from contacting leachate material) and Riley Creek, a Class "A" stream that runs through the site.
This is also consistent with the Illinois EPA Non-degradation Policy which grants special protection from
new or increased loading of pollutants to Class "A" streams.
Class A Stream - This is a Biological Stream Characterization which indicates a "Unique Aquatic
Resource" compar- able to the best situations without human disturbance.
What is the cap made of?
As stated in the first response, there will be a total of four feet of clay (half compacted, half not
compacted) and six inches of topsoil. By installing the layers in a specific sequence and establishing a
Fact Sheet #2 - Western Lion Landfill Site Page 1 of 2
http://www.epa.state.il.us/community-relations/fact-sheets/western-lion/western-lion-2.html 5/24/2012