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Politics & Government

Landfill Moratorium Committee Recommends its Demise

Committee approved the work of DNR and DHS at The Shire landfill development; sent state recommendations to Common Council.

The Brookfield Landfill Moratorium Committee may have voted itself out of existence, but don’t look for new houses going up on The Shire subdivision outlots anytime soon.

The committee last week approved a memorandum that “concludes the State has applied a professional and scientific methodology regarding the preparation and issuance of said Report,” concerning The Shire subdivision outlots.

The committee recommended the Common Council dissolve the body, accept the state's report and that it “be binding into the future regarding property-owner initiated requests for development approval or change of platting” unless new public health concerns arise.

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The council will review the committee memo on Oct. 4, when it can accept the conclusion or keep the panel in place, stalling future development. In August, aldermen extended until September 2012 a 2004 moratorium on building additional homes on The Shire outlots.

If the council disbands the committee, subdivision plat drawings will go before the Plan Commission. City Planning Administrator Michael Theis said that discussion is already penciled on the Nov. 7 Plan Commission agenda.  

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Plus, there is a groundwater study still being reviewed and written that the DNR doesn’t expect to submit to the city until early 2012 that could influence future development of The Shire.

Last Wednesday, DNR representative James Delwiche and DHS representative Henry Nehls-Rowe presented findings from monitoring gas probes at the Brookfield Road landfill. Their report made four recommendations to the city.

“This is neither an approval nor denial of the proposed development,” Delwiche said. “That is your decision.”

Between January 2004 and September 2009, 62 gas monitoring probes plus soil bores were sampled to determine the level of methane, VOC emissions and chemical runoffs from the landfill and on the outlots. According to Delwiche, there were minimal detections of methane from the probes, except for one — GP106(S). He did acknowledge there still is methane being created by the fill, but said it has decreased from 600 cubic feet per minute to 200 CPM and continues to do so, only at a much slower rate. He added the risk of the methane combusting is low when properly mitigated.

The outlier probe, located on the border of the landfill and outlot 8, consistently has detectible emissions during the dry, summer months. Because of this, the state recommended that Waste Management install a mitigation trench lined with crushed rock at the outlot 8 boundary, along with a 10- to 20-foot retaining wall. Delwiche said the trench will work like drainage tiles around a home — the methane will rise through the rock into the air, where it will dissipate.

The retaining wall will be constructed by Waste Management, under an amendment to the Moratorium Committee’s memorandum, to correct an approximate 20-foot drop between the landfill and outlot 8. Delwiche said that wall could mitigate more of the gas by removing soil and fill and providing a solid barrier between the landfill and lot.

The state also recommended that any developed outlots should have sub-slab vapor mitigation systems with a liner, coarse gravel base, perforated piping, a sealed sump and fan. The fan system creates a vacuum to pull gases from the sub-slab to a pipe which releases emissions into the air. Nehls-Rowe said this type of system would mitigate gases even during a power outage, similar to the trench system.

Waste Management would have to follow state NR 500 rules to abandon gas probes in the outlots and add new ones at the revised outer boundary of the landfill and continue to operate the landfill according to DNR rules.  

The moratorium committee would not discuss groundwater issues, since it was out of its scope, but one concern was addressed by the Board of Public Works at its meeting Tuesday. City Public Works Director Tom Grisa said he, Delwiche and a citizen who lives north of the landfill inspected sample wells located near the water table southeast of the fill. The citizen, Charles Stanfield, said he has seen leachates in the groundwater at the site.

Grisa and Delwiche said they saw water and rust-colored discharge at the wells, but the discharge was due to iron content commonly found in the state’s groundwater. They said leachates would appear gooey and black, not rusty.

Delwiche minimized Stanfield’s claims that there is known contamination in lots north of the landfill. He said the flow of both groundwater and storm water from the landfill goes in a south/southeastern direction, and it shouldn’t affect lots to the north and those in The Shire, which lies to the southwest of the fill.

Delwiche added that building near or on a landfill is not new in Waukesha County or elsewhere. He pointed to the Orchard Hill subdivision built next to the Muskego Landfill and big-box stores built on the fill near I-94 and Highway 43 in Delafield.

“Miller Park is built on a landfill and you can see the mitigation vents in the outfield,” he said.

Nehls-Lowe added “by implementing the recommendations, we view that landfill gas does not pose a health or safety risk at the additional lots.”

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