increased stink from Hillside dump should be temporary

Have you noticed the Hillside dump emitting more stink than usual lately?


Suburban Life (Joe Sinopoli) has what the company has told the village. And the village's representative on the issue, Joe Pisano, director of public works and building services, buys the explanation.

Pisano said 14 new gas wells have been installed in those quadrants that are expected to be connected to an active vacuum system no later than early next week....

As of this week, roughly the western third of the landfill is about 85 percent complete as far as filling and gas collection, and it’s now being prepared for the installation of a final membrane that will be capped by 3 feet of topsoil.

I was at a backyard barbecue yesterday with a contractor who described driving down to the bottom of the landfill to dump his construction waste decades ago.

He said it was 1,500 feet deep. And that he was allowed down because it hadn't rained recently. He described enormous machines for rolling over the dumped material and crushing and compressing it.

ENVIR, Hillside dump to close & be converted to green space [H, BW]

Proviso Insider:

According to sources close to the situation, waste disposal at the landfill will end for good in late spring of 2008, and the landfill will be converted to green space by the end of 2008. Sources say a community meeting to detail the plans for closing the landfill is set for Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 7pm at St. Domitilla School, South Hall, 605 Hillside Avenue, Hillside, Illinois.

While Proviso Insider lacks credibility on political issues and stories about local people, I hope s/he's got this one right.

The Hillside dump has under the worse circumstances been the source of noxious odors in Bellwood for many years.