Tippecanoe County officials continue to wait on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to move forward with reusing the old landfill on North 9th Street.
The property remains a Superfund site due to the presence of contaminants when the landfill closed nearly 25 years ago. However, cleanup work has removed the threat to people and the environment.
The county submitted a reuse plan nearly a year ago. Vicky Keramida, whose company monitors the landfill, says the E.P.A. has been slow to respond and now wants revised documents.
She suggests the Tippecanoe County Local Environmental Response Finance Board, which oversees the landfill, follow up with a letter to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management expressing a desire to move forward with the site.
“I think if we work through the state, we can really speed things up,” Keramida says.
There are limited options for what can be done at the site, so local officials say it likely would become a park. The county is in talks with neighboring property owners about acquiring several ponds and access to Wildcat Creek.
“We don’t need much space, just for public to go (to the creek),” Keramida says. “It’s such a beautiful creek.”
Another option for the roughly 60 acre site includes a methane-fueled greenhouse, using the gas produced by the landfill contents. Keramida says that would support the burgeoning “local food” movement.