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Lemon Lane Landfill
One of the major locations of PCBs in Bloomington, Lemon Lane Landfill is located on the northwest side of town on the corner of Vernal Pike and SR 37. It is a Superfund site.
The original landfill area covered approximately 10 acres. Lemon Lane road and a residential area along Lemon Lane bound the east side of the landfill. The CSX Railroad tracks border the southern edge of Lemon Lane Landfill. Directly south of the railroad tracks is Valhalla Memory Gardens. Two privately owned parcels of residential property bound the landfill on the north. Viacom owns the undeveloped land to the west of the landfill. SR 37 is approximately 900 feet northwest of the landfill entrance. The Griffin property borders the southern portion of the east fence line of Lemon Lane Landfill.
Situated on a series of sinkholes, the landfill catches rainwater which goes underground and later bubbles out at the Illinois Central Springs, the headwater of Clear Creek.
History
The landfill began operation as a refuse dump in 1933. The City of Bloomington operated the landfill from 1950 to 1964 as a municipal waste landfill. It was also used as a repository for industrial debris and waste. Electrical capacitors from Westinghouse were deposited in Lemon Lane Landfill from 1958 to 1964 by contracted local waste haulers; these capacitors were filled with PCBs and, when broken, would contaminate the area.
In 1981 the city sued Westinghouse and Monsanto for $327 million over PCB contamination at the landfill and at other sites.
