Celebrating Success:
DuPage County Blackwell Forest Preserve
Warrenville, Illinois
&EPA
Superfuncl
Redevelopment
Initiative
"We wanted the 'hill' to fit in with the native
landscape. We didn't want a green dome that
you see at typical landfills."
Joe Benedict, Director of Environmental
Services, Forest Preserve District.
Tubing on Mt, Hoy. (Source: The EPA)
For more information, please contact
Melissa Friedland at
friedland.melissa@epa.gov or (703) 603-8864
or Frank Awisato at
awisato.frank@,epa.gov or (703) 603-8949.
Innovative and forward thinking on the part of the Forest Preserve
District of DuPage County (the District) has resulted in recreational
opportunities as well as concerted conservation efforts and educational
programs at the DuPage County Landfill/Blackwell Forest Preserve
Superfund site (the Site) in Warrenville, Illinois.
In the 1960s, the District not only identified suitable space for a county
landfill within the 1200-acre Blackwell Forest Preserve, but also
conceived of the future reuse of the landfill and forest preserve as a
multipurpose recreation area. The long-term plan for reuse demonstrated
the District's commitment to making sure free, publicly accessible forest
preserve facilities remain an available resource for the local community.
The 40-acre landfill operated from 1965 until 1973. In 1981, the
District, Illinois EPA and the EPA found that toxic chemicals from the
landfill had leaked into ground water at the Site. The EPA added the
Site to the Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) in 1990. The EPA
required the District to take measures to update the landfill cover and to
collect and treat chemicals and gas emanating from the landfill. After
these measures were taken, the landfill, known as Mt. Hoy, was ready to
support the planned recreational use. The District worked with the EPA
throughout the cleanup process to maintain public access to areas where
cleanup actions had been completed.
Through cooperation between the District and the EPA, local residents
now enjoy year-round recreational activities at the Site, including hiking,
cross-country skiing, fishing and a winter tubing hill. The Site also
contains ecological restoration and environmental educational areas.
The District replaced the vegetation on the landfill cover with prairie
grass indigenous to the region. Observational areas and interpretive
exhibits provide education on the ecology of the area, as well as the
Site's remedial technologies.
The District continues to expand facilities at the Site and forest
preserve. In 2012, the Urban Stream Research Center and a recreational
complex opened at the forest preserve. The Urban Stream Research
Center, the only research facility of its kind in Illinois, provides space
for the study of the DuPage River watershed, as well as a variety of
other waterway projects. The recreational complex includes an archery
facility with beginner, advanced and interactive ranges; a wheelchair-
accessible fishing pier; a picnic area; a new trailhead, which connects
to the existing trail system; and parking. Working closely with EPA,
the District has upheld its commitment to public access, a cost effective
cleanup, ecosystem restoration and educational opportunities.
March 2013
Fish propagation tanks for ^introduction to
restored habitats. (Source: Forest Preserve
District DuPage County)

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