Subject of a landmark, legal-precedent setting trial, an unlined, hazardous-waste landfill was said by experts ‘not to leak in 100 years’ however, contaminants were detected in monitoring wells 3 meters from the burial trenches only 3 years after closure. Field and lab tests, and remote sensing measurements showed causes for the ‘faster than predicted’ contaminant migration from a hazardous waste landfill, but why?

Dr. Christopher “Chris” Stohr, PhD, is a retired geologist from the Illinois State Geological Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the 2025–2026 Richard H. Jahns Distinguished Lecturer. He has over 40 years of applied geology and humanitarian experience in the Midwest, Africa, and South America. He earned a BS in Geology from Saint Joseph’s College, an MS in Engineering Geology from Purdue University, and a PhD from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on thermal-infrared analysis of landfill cover failure. He began with the Missouri Geology and Land Survey, investigating dams and hazardous-waste sites and directing an inventory of 3,600 dams. At ISGS he studied landslides, groundwater, geophysics, remote sensing, and carbon sequestration, earning the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. (ASPRS) Autometric Award. Stohr also served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Egypt and led development projects in Malawi. A licensed Professional and Certified Engineering Geologist in Illinois and Oregon, he serves on the Illinois Board of Licensing for Professional Geologists and the Mahomet Aquifer Council and is a former three-term Champaign County Board member.