MIG Dewane Landfill

The MIG/DeWane landfill is located in Boone County approximately one-quarter mile east of the City of Belvidere and one-half mile north of U.S. Business Route 20.

Between 1969 and 1988, the 47-acre landfill received general refuse and industrial wastes including paint sludge, volatile organic chemicals, asbestos and liquids containing heavy metals. The site was not properly closed and capped, resulting in a 5 to 10-acre depression in the middle of the landfill. This depression collected water, which drained into the landfill, resulting in over one hundred leachate seeps.

In 1989 and 1990, the Illinois EPA and U.S Environmental Protection Agency (U.S EPA), in two separate actions, removed approximately 155,000 gallons of leachate. In 1991, parties responding to a U.S. EPA and Illinois EPA Administrative Order on Consent conducted a number of interim actions including the installation of an interim cap over the landfill. The landfill was placed on the National Priorities List (sometimes called the Superfund List) in 1990.

In April 1999, elevated levels of landfill gas were detected in the soil and in a few homes in Wycliffe Estates directly west of the landfill. The parties responding to the 1991 Administrative Order on Consent installed an active landfill-gas interception system along the western boundary of the landfill. The system significantly reduced landfill gas within a month. No landfill gas has been detected in the subdivision during the past six years.

• Fact Sheet - January 2006