Preface
Since its establishment in 1970, the Illinois EPA has overseen the development and
operation of a productive system of modern sanitary landfills. The Agency sees to it that
these facilities meet the strictest disposal standards in history, and that they are
engineered to be fully protective of human health and the environment, especially where it
concerns any possibility of groundwater contamination.
Although the number of active landfills in Illinois dipped to 57 in 1996, and their
total capacity declined during that year, their ability to absorb municipal wastes
remained at a level ensuring there will be no landfill capacity crisis in Illinois, either
now or in the foreseeable future.
This is the Agency's 10th annual report on landfill disposal and available
landfill capacity in Illinois. And I am happy to tell you that even if landfill
development and expansion were to come to a halt (a truly unlikely prospect), sufficient
capacity exists to handle the state's requirements for landfill disposal of
nonhazardous solid waste for the next 10 years.
Additionally, state government, seeking to avoid potential crises, has asked all
Illinois counties to adopt well-conceived plans to accommodate their future disposal
needs. All of these activities are reflected in this publication.
We hope you will find this information useful and instructive, and we welcome your
comments and suggestions as to how we may improve upon this effort.
Mary A. Gade
Director
Executive Summary
This is the Illinois EPA's 10th annual report describing the management of nonhazardous
municipal solid waste by the state's solid-waste landfills and transfer stations. The
report is divided into sections representing Illinois EPA administrative regions.
Each regional section includes newly designed specification pages describing the chief
physical characteristics of each landfill; its location and hours of operation; tipping
fee; quantities of wastes received (in gate cubic yards, tons and tons per day) for the
last three years; the landfill's certified remaining capacity (in gate cubic yards
and tons) for the last two reporting periods; solid waste management fees paid in 1996;
which Agency regional field office or delegated local authority inspects the facility; and
the name, address and phone number of the landfill's owner and operator.
Similar but scaled-down specification pages are included for each transfer station. In
all, this report includes details of 77 landfills and 66 transfer stations.
Illinois municipal solid waste landfills are required to report to the Illinois EPA the
quantities of solid wastes they receive each year, and to calculate and report the amount
of remaining capacity existing on the first day of the following year.
During 1996, 57 landfills reported receiving 46,134,206 gate cubic yards of waste. This
volume was 989,956 gate cubic yards less than the total received during 1995, or a
2.1 percent decline.
As of Jan. 1, 1997, 57 landfills reported having a combined remaining capacity of
411,909,000 gate cubic yards, or 61,903,000 gate cubic yards less than on Jan. 1, 1996, a
drop of 13.1 percent.
Dividing wastes disposed during 1996 by capacity remaining on Jan. 1, 1997, indicates a
landfill life expectancy in Illinois of 8.9 years, at 1996 disposal rates, barring
capacity adjustments, until capacity is depleted. |
