KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – It’s the environmental disaster that just keeps on giving, or in this case, taking.
Kalamazoo County commissioners plan a public hearing Wednesday night to expand its sanitary district to the west and north of the KL Avenue landfill, as its underground plume of contaminants continues to expand.
The landfill was the area’s trash dump during the 1960s and 1970s. It was closed in 1979 when contaminants were detected in private water wells nearby.
County Environmental Health director Lucus Pols says establishing the zone is for the safety of the homeowners, as the contamination continues to move to the northwest.
Audio PlayerHe says most of the actual threat has already been eliminated.
Audio PlayerOver two-dozen different chemicals were initially found, but only one of them continues to be a health concern, with that being a solvent stabilizer that the EPA says is a likely carcinogen.
The sanitary district now extends all the way from the 87-acre landfill at West KL between 3rd and 4th streets all the way to the Van Buren County line.
There is not a 3rd St that crosses W KL Avenue. The old landfill was between 4th and 5th Streets.