The supreme court of the State of Illinois is considering a case brought before it which argues that old quarries that became mixed C&D debris landfills need to be monitored for groundwater concerns.
According to an online report from TV station KWQC of Davenport, Iowa, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is the plaintiff in the suit, and its argument extends to “dozens” of such landfills in the state.
The practice of using obsolete rock quarries to hold concrete, wood, asphalt and other discarded construction and demolition materials occurs in several states in the United States.
The Illinois EPA and officials in Will County, which has a growing population of Chicago suburbanites, express concerns that heavy metals and other chemicals could be present in the C&D materials, and they could subsequently leach into nearby groundwater.
According to KWQC, Will County has nine such quarries, in a jurisdiction where “70 percent of residents rely on groundwater” for everyday use.
The Supreme Court has indicated it is focusing on whether the Illinois Pollution Control Board failed to follow existing law when it left groundwater monitoring out of its 2012 rules for C&D debris landfills.