NEW CARLISLE — The EPA is working to clean up a landfill that’s been around for 70 years. The landfill has been closed for years, but residents are concerned about dangerous chemicals.
The 22-acre landfill located at 715 N. Dayton Lakeview Drive in New Carlisle was used in the mid 1950’s for industrial, commercial, and residential waste.
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The landfill was closed in 1977, but the impact has lasted for decades for homeowners in the area.
In 2005, U.S Environmental Protection Agency agents located and cleaned up the chemicals that could’ve affected residential wells.
In 2026, the land has not fully recovered.
Vernon Gibson, a New Carlisle resident, said that he has lived in the area for about 15 to 20 years and never knew that the landfill was there.
When told that there were about nine different chemicals in the soil, air, and water, he said that not much thought was put into the landfills when they first opened up.
“They put anything and everything in there,” said Gibson.
In 2024, the EPA made a remedial design plan. A year later, they spoke with people living nearby. Now they are beginning the design work for the landfill with help from the U.S Army Corps of Engineers.
“I think anytime that there needs to be a clean up like that, that can affect the water supply or the environment around it or whatever. It needs to be cleaned up,” said Gibson.
The EPA said there is no public health hazard for people living in the area.
In a statement from the EPA, they said that they are “working on the final engineering plans’ for the cleanup.
Read the full statement from the EPA below:
“The New Carlisle Landfill operated from the mid-1950s until the early 1970s, leading to groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds beneath the landfill and in a plume to the south of the landfill. EPA divided the site into two geographical areas, or operable units. OU1 is the on-site area, which includes the landfill waste, landfill gas, on-site groundwater and vapor intrusion at residential and commercial properties directly adjacent to the eastern side of the landfill. OU2 is the off-site area, which includes locations where contaminated groundwater has migrated south of the landfill property.
A cleanup plan for OU1 was selected in 2021 and EPA is working on the final engineering plans. OU2 is in the “remedial investigation/feasibility study” phase. Once the OU1 remedy has been constructed, EPA will investigate whether off-site groundwater contamination requires cleanup. This investigation is will likely take about two years. If EPA concludes that further intervention is necessary, the agency will develop long-term cleanup options for the off-site groundwater contamination and share the final options for public comment."
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