Fewer but larger landfills ahead
By TIM MITCHELL
News-Gazette Staff Writer

   For much of the 20th century, trash accumulated by Champaign-Urbana residents found its way to municipal landfills, one in each city.
   Today both landfills are closed, and solid waste from the twin cities is, by and large, sent to landfills in Danville and Clinton.
   As a new century dawns, both Champaign and Urbana are monitoring their closed landfills to ensure they are safe while waste management companies search for new landfill sites in anticipation of the day when current landfills are full.
   For the better part of the past century, haulers didn't have very far to go to deposit solid waste. Champaign operated a landfill on U.S. 150 west of town, while Urbana operated a landfill on East University Avenue.
   As Champaign-Urbana grew, the local landfills soon reached their capacity. Champaign stopped accepting trash at its landfill in 1975, and Urbana closed its facility in 1988.
   Since then, nearly every waste hauler in the area uses either the Clinton landfill or Danville's Brickyard Disposal landfill, according to Russ Shaffer of Shaffer Sanitary in Urbana.
   Ron Edwards, overseer for the Clinton landfill, said he expects his site to last another nine to 10 years.
   Edwards said the 68-acre Clinton landfill opened about 10 years ago. Solid waste from 12 different haulers across central Illinois has filled approximately half of that land.
   According to Edwards, the amount of volume of solid waste brought to his landfill has remained pretty constant from year to year.
   He credits recycling efforts for keeping the volume from increasing.
   Ken Samet, site manager for the Brickyard Disposal landfill in Danville, said the current facility has filled between 10 and 15 acres out of 152 available acres since it opened in 1993.
   Samet said Brickyard is expected to last another 30 years.
   Edwards said the process to select new sites for landfills takes several years, but his company intends to find a new site long before the current landfill is depleted.
   State officials say the long-term trend in Illinois is to have fewer and larger operating landfills.
   Dave Walters, manager of solid waste planning and reporting for the Illinois Bureau of Land, said there were 150 operating landfills in Illinois in 1990. By January 2000, there were 58.
   However, overall capacity has increased because the newer landfills are much larger than in the past and because existing landfills are expanding in size, said Walters.
   Ten years ago, Illinois landfills had capacity to handle only another 10 years of solid waste. But today's landfills have enough capacity to last for 17 years, according to Walters.
   "The trend has been for fewer but larger landfills," said Walters. "All indications are that we will still be using landfills here in Illinois in the year 2100."

Inactive landfills still engaging officials' attention

   In Champaign-Urbana, the municipal landfills may be inactive, but the two cities expect to deal with the environmental effects of those landfills for years to come.
   Jeff Smith, an engineer for the Champaign Department of Public Works, said monitoring of the U.S. 150 landfill has been very costly for the city.
   While the landfill hasn't accepted trash for 25 years, official closure recognition from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has been slow in coming.
   According to Smith, the IEPA didn't recognize the methods Champaign used to try to close its landfill.
   After city officials completed a study on the landfill a few years ago, the IEPA approved a closure and post-closure monitoring plan.
   Smith said Champaign spent $1 million on cleanup work at the landfill during the summer of 1998.
   "Our goal is to make sure that rainwater doesn't penetrate into the landfill and leach out some of the material from the landfill," said Smith. "We're working to cap the top of the landfill so there is no ponding water and the water runs off it."
   Work crews placed 2 feet of clean clay on top of the solid waste. The clay was then covered with a layer of topsoil and seeded with grass.
   According to Smith, the city has budgeted another $1 million for a second phase of cleanup work this summer and plans to spend another $1 million for the final phase in 2002.
   "At that point in time, we'll have the landfill fully closed under the IEPA's definitions," said Smith.
   After that, Smith said, he expects Champaign engineers to monitor the groundwater in that area for another 10 years.
   While Champaign has faced delays in formally closing its landfill, Urbana's complex of four landfill sites received post-closure certification from the IEPA in the early 1990s, according to Urbana Environmental Manager Rod Fletcher.
   "As far as the state is concerned, we have met all the requirements associated with closing a landfill," said Fletcher.
   While the complex is no longer being used, Fletcher said, the city has placed several monitoring wells at the complex to ensure that no chemicals are leaking from the site.
   Fletcher said no signs of leakage have been found so far, but the city will continue to monitor the wells through 2018 as part of an agreement with adjacent property owners.
   "But I would suspect that we will continue to do some sort of monitoring indefinitely after 2018 as well," he said.

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