May 16, 2017 Environmental Breakfast - Illinois' Legacy Landfills and Impacts on Water Quality
With Special Guest Speaker, Christopher Stohr, PhD
The A&WMA Lake Michigan States Section and the Union League Club Environmental Committee are pleased to invite you to join us to hear Dr. Christopher Stohr speak at the May 16th Environmental Breakfast on Illinois’ Legacy Landfills.
Dr. Christopher Stohr is an engineering geologist specializing in remote sensing, image processing, photogrammetry, LiDAR, 3D mapping, conventional and satellite surveying, natural hazards, and waste management at the Illinois State Geological Survey, a unit of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Dr. Stohr has served as a consult expert on the Earthline landfill in Wilsonville, Illinois. He is currently working with colleagues to refine a remote sensing method that will improve monitoring of landfills (dumps) that will help protect water quality.
Isolation of wastes from potable water resources is a foundation of modern sanitation and public health. There are 3,430 closed dumps and landfill complexes in Illinois of which only a few are actively monitored. Of these, 1,524 lie over shallow aquifers within 20-feet of the land surface. 95% of the landfills are within ½ km of high, medium or low intensity development. In east central Illinois 218 landfills lie over the Mahomet Aquifer of which about one-half lie over shallow aquifers that supply drinking water to individuals across the region.
The Earthline hazardous-waste landfill in west-central Illinois is notable for setting several legal precedents regarding isolation of chemical wastes (public right to know, trade secrets, tracking of wastes, list of contents in a container). Leakage of contaminants revealed several problems inherent with unlined landfills including infiltration through the earthen covers, leakage through fractures in weathered glacial sediments and sand channels, burial of liquid wastes, and piping of soils.
Customary “walkover” inspections provide limited information for post closure landfill monitoring, but can be improved with interpretation of publicly available, digital, 4-band, aerial orthophotography, airborne lidar for defects (several examples). Dr. Stohr will talk about the potential threats to water quality associated with landfills across the state and methods for monitoring these sites.
TIME: 8:00 a.m. Registration & Breakfast / 8:30 a.m. Program
LOCATION: Union League Club, 65 W. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL
COST: The cost to attend for non-Union League Club members is $40 per person which includes breakfast and any presentation handouts. Students are invited to join us at a special price of $20 per person.
RSVP: Due to limited seating and our arrangement with the Union League Club, advance registration is required to guarantee availability. Reservations and payment can be made by clicking the "Registration" button below. Reservations may be cancelled for a full refund only if we are notified 48 hours in advance of the event. Union League Club members should contact ULC to make their reservations.
CREDIT: Attendees are eligible to receive Continuing Legal Education (CLE) or Professional Development Hours (PDH) credit.
A limited number of scholarships are available for anyone who requires CLE credit to maintain professional registration such as attorneys, professional engineers and professional geologists and who could not otherwise afford to attend this conference. Contact Robin Pelsis at (847) 202-0418 or robin.pelsis@lmawma.org for more details.