In anticipation of a rising water table, the Lansing Board of Water and Light (BWL) has started a $4.6 million project to clean up a 40-acre former coal ash landfill.
The landfill, which was constructed in the 1970s, is near Lake Lansing Road and Wood Street. Since the 1970s, the water table has risen, bringing the water and 
coal ash closer together, increasing the chance of water contamination.
“There’s a chance, over many, many years, that [the ash] would leach into water supply,” says Mark Nixon with the BWL.
Nixon says no one is in immediate danger of contamination. If left unaddressed, contaminants could leak into the supply in about 50 years.
“This is not something that’s going to happen in the next couple of months or the next couple of years,” he says.
The BWL has hired a contractor to build a “slurry wall” to contain the coal ash and keep it out of the water supply. The wall will be 80 to 110 feet deep.
The renovation should be complete this fall.
Source: Mark Nixon, BWL
Ivy Hughes, development news editor, can be reached here.
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