A number of TMJ4 News viewers reached out to us about an unusual project underway in Menomonee Falls on Thursday. So we reached out to authorities and they tell us they are moving waste from a quarry from the 1950s to a new landfill with modern environmental protections, according to the company Waste Management, which is carrying out the project.
Waste Management spokesperson Lynn Morgan tells us that on Dec. 19, 2022 crews started on the project, located within the larger Orchard Ridge landfill complex. Menomonee Falls approved the project in 2018 and the state of Wisconsin approved it in 2021.
The landfill has become Wisconsin's largest, and is somewhat controversial.
Crews are now removing waste from a sand and gravel quarry dating from the 1950s. The spokesperson said the site in Falls is actually on the Superfund: National Priorities List (NPL). There are thousands of such sites across the country, according to the NPL list.
The waste from the old site will be then brought to a new landfill with modern environmental protections, according to Waste Management.
The company noted the new landfill is lined, while the old quarry was not. Many state and federal regulations we have today were not in place when the old quarry was shut down.
According to the Wisconsin DNR's own list of NPL sites, there is one site on Boundary Road, known as the Lauer landfill. Its final testing date is listed as September 1984.
According to the EPA's website, the Lauer/Boundary Road quarry started in 1954 as part of a sand and gravel operation that also accepted 'municipal and industrial wastes'. Operations ceased in 1971, and crews closed and covered the site per the environmental laws of the time.
Because waste was placed below the groundwater table, 'outward migration of leachate reached the surrounding aquifer,' according to the EPA.
Meanwhile, the Waukesha County Environmental Action League has expressed concern over the project. They say opening up the old site could release hazardous and contaminated waste and soils. They say nearby residents take issue with the chance of potentially toxic air emissions and contaminated runoff, according to a March 2021 report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
