I just got off the phone with the EPA office in Chicago. After a few calls yesterday, I received the following info:

The cleanup operation next to Buffalo Range was not a Federal EPA operation, but an Illinois EPA project.
It would seem that there were parallel State and Federal EPA cleanups in the Ottawa area.
The Fed project, according to them, was not the cleanup of the land next to Bufffalo Range. I spoke directly with the EPA person in charge of the Federal EPA project out there, who insists that closing down BR was not their doing.

It seems we've been going after the wrong agency.

I'll do some research later and see what I cann find out from the Illinois EPA.

November 30th is NOT an acceptable opening day for the Range AFAIAC.

CKMorley

More Info:


http://www.epa.state.il.us/news-releases/2003/2003-089-ottawa-consent-orders.html


State Enters Consent Orders for Ottawa Landfill

Will Secure Remediation, Cost Reimbursement, Future Use of Property and Access to Perform Work
For Immediate Release
October 27, 2003
Contact: Maggie Carson
217-557-8138
TDD: 217-782-9143

Illinois Attorney General Contact: Melissa Merz
312-814-2518
877-844-5461 (TTY)

Springfield, Ill. -- Illinois EPA Director Renee Cipriano and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan today announced the entry of two consent orders on October 24, 2003, in LaSalle County Circuit Court concerning the Brockman I landfill, located three miles southwest of Ottawa.

The consent orders are entered jointly with the LaSalle County State's Attorney. The first consent order is with 19 corporations that sent waste to the landfill. The second is with Evelyn Muffler and Elsbeth Fullmer; Muffler operates a gun range adjacent to the landfill and Fullmer owns the property on which the landfill is located.

Brockman I is an 18-acre inactive landfill near Ottawa that had previously been strip-mined. Between 1970 and 1979, the landfill was operated by Wilmer Brockman, Jr., and accepted a wide range of hazardous and non-hazardous waste from industrial and municipal sources. Waste included paint and plating sludges, organic solvents and cyanides.

Illinois EPA records show a history of mismanagement at the site, and the landfill was not properly capped and closed when it ceased operations in 1979. Without proper cover, melting snow and rain enters the landfill, washing contaminants from the waste into the groundwater below.

In the first consent order, 19 parties agreed to remediate the landfill by constructing a multi-layer cap over the landfill, implementing surface water and sediment controls, installing a passive landfill gas venting system, and performing maintenance of the cap for ten years and groundwater monitoring for 15 years. The 19 settling parties will also reimburse the state for past costs and future oversight costs.

In the second order, Muffler and Fullmer agreed to give access for the work described in the first consent order. In addition, Fullmer, who owns the property on which the landfill is located, agreed to deed restrictions and institutional controls which restrict activity on the landfill to protect the cap. These restrictions will include the prohibition constructing anything on the landfill and of installing, maintaining or operating wells or a water system at the landfill, with the exception of monitoring wells. Muffler also agreed to cease operation of the gun range while the work is being conducted. When the cap is finished, Muffler agrees to operate the gun range in a manner that does not threaten the integrity of the remedy.

The landfill cap should be stable after the first five years, but the settling parties will continue to provide cap maintenance for an additional five years. The Illinois EPA will also monitor the cap during and after the 10-year period.

While private wells in the area are not in the path of the groundwater flowing out of Brockman I, the consent decree requires responsible parties to inspect monitoring wells for 15 years to evaluate ongoing conditions.

Some work may begin this year, but the cap will probably be constructed in the spring of 2004, then vegetated and seeded in the fall of 2004. Construction of the cap and the gas ventilation system will be completed in 2004.

Vidicates our assumptions huh CK?

Agreed.
It would've helped if BR had told us it was the ILLINOIS EPA, so we could've saved some time.

My reading of this is that when Buffalo Range agreed to that Consent Order, they screwed themselves.
They gave the IL-AG, not the IL-EPA,  complete authority over when they could re-open.
The November 30th date, so quickly supplied by Lisa Mad-at-guns office, would seem to correlate with the end of Fall, when the seeding and replanting refered to in the Order, is scheduled to be completed.

BR should've retained a lawyer before all this, not after.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe they did have a lawyer look at this, but from my outsider's view, I doubt it. They look pretty screwed.

Either way, I'll be there on Novemer 3oth.

CKMorley