Wells may pose threat at Lowell landfill

By John Byrne
The Post-Tribune

LOWELL, IN - An investigation into pollution levels at the Feddeler landfill may actually have made the pollution worse, according to state officials.

Arguing wells dug at the Feddeler site last year by Lake County environmental contractors could contribute to water contamination, the state Department of Environmental Management has threatened to fine the Lake County Sheriff's Department up to $25,000 per day.

State officials contend the Sheriff's Department overstepped its authority and violated environmental statutes last year while investigating whether chemical discharges from the long-dormant landfill north of Indiana 2 were fouling the air or groundwater around Lowell.

Sheriff Roy Dominguez expressed surprise that state officials aren't embracing his attempts to bring area polluters to heel.

"I fully expected to be opposed by environmental polluters, but not by IDEM," Dominguez said. The sheriff wants IDEM to take more samples at the landfill.

Though six months of tests beginning last fall by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, IDEM and the Lake County Solid Waste Management District found no evidence of hazardous chemicals in the air above the landfill or in the water running off the landfill, Dominguez said IDEM pledged to do another survey. "If the tests come back negative, that's a good thing for the people of the county, and particularly the Lowell area," Domin-guez said. "But as of today, they need to continue looking into this. Right now we can't be sure."

IDEM officials have apparently concluded the biggest environmental threat at the Feddeler site comes from wells dug by county contractor Elliot Hendrickson Inc., while searching for metal drums rumored to be buried there.

"Four wells installed at the site by the contractor penetrated the cap of the landfill, providing a possible conduit for surface water to enter the waste disposed at the site," reads a letter IDEM Commissioner Thomas Easterly sent to Dominguez at the end of August. "In addition, at least two of the wells penetrated the cap, the waste in the landfill and possibly extended into an aquifer formation beneath the site."

No drums were found in the landfill.

If the county does not agree to remedy the situation, Easterly writes, the state may begin fining the county as an environmental violator.

Dominguez said he would meet with his attorneys today before responding to IDEM.

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