The DeKalb County Ad Hoc Solid Waste Committee met on Tuesday, August 29, 2006, @ 1:30p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.  Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias called the meeting to order.  Members present were Steve Slack, Vince Faivre, Pat Vary and Roger Steimel.  Staff present were Ray Bockman, Paul Miller, and Bob Drake.   Others present were Dale Hoekstra and Lee Adelman of Waste Management Corporation.

Chairman Tobias welcomed everyone and thanked them for sitting on the committee.  She explained that the County has a landfill in DeKalb County that is estimated to last another 9 years.  Because of this she would like to start planning early since it takes a long time to create a future expansion or new landfill.

She explained that one of the things that the committee will need to do is hold public hearings in various communities around the county if we decide to expand.  She further explained that Waste Management would like to increase the garbage intake at the landfill.  

The committee asked, as we go through these meetings and Waste Management attends them, when does it become prohibitive for them to continue to meet with us and then we in turn begin the public hearing process?  Mr. Bockman, DeKalb County Administrator, said that once Waste Management files for a permit the 172 process begins and we cannot talk to them any longer.  That process does trigger the public hearings then.

Mr. Paul Miller, DeKalb County Planning and Zoning Director, said that prior to the 172 filing, there is nothing that prohibits this committee from sponsoring either informational meetings or public hearings.  There is nothing that stops this committee from conducting these public hearings in advance of a formal application, he further stated. 

Is there a goal for the County to find a way to dispose of their waste with minimal amount of negative effect on the land in the County? Asked Mr. Steimel.

Ms. Vary said that with a lot of the new technology that is out – there is a possibility of  generating energy.

Mr. Faivre said that a goal should be that whatever the form the landfill takes, whether it be a transfer station or an expansion of the current site, this committee should keep it under the control or the relationship of the County.

Mr. Bockman asked that as this goes forward to keep the local business community in mind.

Ms. Vary said that we should also examine the alternatives of not having a landfill here and what the costs would be if the landfill were no longer here.

Mr. Paul Miller said that whatever is done, we should be looking at a long-term solution like 25 years, minimum.

Mr. Bockman said that whatever is done he would like a clarity on what you, the County Board, wants to do.  Like, “Is this a goal of this committee to forward a recommendation through the Planning and Zoning Committee, to the County Board, to modify or not modify the agreement with Waste Management?”

Mr. Drake, of the Environmental Division of the Health Department,  said that he feels that the County has three options to look at.  1.) to expand because 9 years is a short length of time, 2.) cite a transfer station, or 3.) do nothing.  

Mr. Paul Miller said that there is a fourth option, which is build a new landfill.

Ms. Vary said that an increase would mean a larger landfill.  When you get into large landfills the costs become much more cost effective.  

Chairman Tobias summed up the discussion by stating that she understands that the committee wants to gather information from the public, wants to identify alternatives, wants the County governance relationship and to keep it going, and wants to send a recommendation to modify the solid waste plan to the Planning and Zoning Committee.

Some other ideas that the committee discussed further were:

1.) What other places are doing?  

2.) Are they looking into alternatives?   

3.) Send a notice to the Press of the meetings and public hearings and be prepared for their questions.

4.) Public input is important with this process.

5.) Get a list of Waste Management Alternatives and wish list?  The committee needs their input because they are the experts in this field.  

Mr. Adelman of Waste Management thanked the committee for inviting them to the meeting and he is very happy that the County Board did indeed establish a committee to discuss this matter. He also appreciates the fact of doing business here.  He said that they would like to use whatever knowledge they have as a tool to make an informed decision and come up with a long-term strategy for where you’d like to see these things go in the future.  We are not here in these first few meetings to push our agenda. We would like to begin a dialogue on what the future holds for the site and the County.  What Waste Management is seeing happening in the marketplace, is another issue they would like to discuss.  They would like to be a clearinghouse for this committee.

Mr. Adelman said that the tipping fee currently is $35 a ton.  There are some very interesting technologies out there, most of them requiring a tipping fee of around $80 a ton to be efficient.   To allow them to sit down and have a dialogue with this committee means a lot to them.  He asked the committee to let him know if the County is open to an expansion, all options are open at this juncture.  At the end of the day, you may not choose Waste Management as a continued operator. 

Waste Management has about 80% of market concentration in the County currently.  They have zero (0) square feet under option at this point.  They would prefer to deal with the County than an individual community because the County controls the solid waste plan and landfill.  The County has 9 years left at the landfill at 250 to 300 tons a day.  Before filing an application they would speak to the County about a Host Agreement. 

Mr. Adleman continued by stating that before doing this, at this point, we are here to hear what you have to say or do you want us to put a sunset on it and walk away and then become an exporter? The difficulty of that as an exporter, you don’t control your destiny, you don’t stabilize your costs for your municipalities. You have every right to go to Rochelle.  There is every likelihood that Rochelle will expand their site. To send municipalities’ garbage to Rochelle will cost the cities and towns more money. 

Mr. Dale Hoekstra, from Waste Management said that as far as the height is concerned with our landfill, part of it is driven by their discussions with the county and municipalities.  That is, what is your desire for total capacity?  What kind of guarantee would you like to be provided for your county capacity?  So if you wanted 20 years of capacity, they would look at the overall design of that facility and coincide with that design.  The other driving factor of how high we would go is that they look at the soil balance of the site.  That is, how deep are we going?  How much soil are we going to be excavating?  They look at these factors and more and then come back with an overall design that takes place over a long period of time.  

Mr. Adelman said that significant modification would be needed if the County would want to add volume or height to the site now.  Is it possible to go up? Asked Ms. Vary.   Yes, it is, said Mr. Adelman.  The grade on the site is a very modest one, said Mr. Adelman.    

Mr. Steimel asked how many more years are left on their agreements with DeKalb and Sycamore?  Sycamore is about two years into a five-year agreement with some options with two 2-year extensions, if they wish. DeKalb is more recent, about 18 months ago.  

Mr. Paul Miller asked Mr. Adelman if there is a percentage that does work?  Mr. Adelman said that there is a caveat that they do want to discuss, that is, prescribe a service area that the County is comfortable with.  For example, you would state that the County would accept waste from DeKalb, Kane and Kendall, and restrict the service area.  

Mr. Steimel, what would be your preliminary position on how much of an increase in volume, that is, three times, four times?  Mr. Adelman said that it is a great question.  We know what we need, that’s why we are here.  We are willing to enter negotiations on how much you would let us bring in.  We can’t live with 300 tons.  Could we lift the restrictions to the extent that you would allow “x” multiples of that in?  We are not talking about 2000 or 1500 hundred tons a day. Mr. Adelman said that they are talking about an amount that would diminish the existing life (if the County does not want an extension) to your site that would propel a discussion on how to proceed.  Anything that they do on this property, they are talking about five to seven years for this to come to fruition, whether it is a landfill or transfer station. If it is a transfer station, it would take a little less time. 

Is the site desirable for a transfer station? asked Mr. Steimel.  Mr. Adelman said yes.  

The committee asked Mr. Adelman how much acreage is needed for a transfer station?  He said around 8 acres would be fine and that they would certainly be able to put it on the existing footprint and the buffer zone and not require any additional land in order to do it.

Mr. Adelman said that bottom line is what your desires are?  What do you see for your county?  Mr. Adelman said you may decide that you want no out-of-county waste; or that you want to limit the service to collar counties; or the County wants Waste Management  to be limited to “x” amount of tons per day of out-of-county waste, and the County wants Waste Management to guarantee a certain capacity in this landfill or transfer station.  Waste Management wants that capacity to eventually be replaced by the growth and depth of DeKalb County when it does eventually grow.  

Mr. Hoekstra said that they did the same thing for Kankakee County. Kankakee sat down with Waste Management and said that they would allow Waste Management to take another 500 tons a day - what does that mean?  Waste Management said absolutely nothing.  From there, in their discussion, they finally said let’s go up by 3500 tons a day - they were very aggressive in the Host Agreement, explained Mr. Adelman.  Waste Management said look, we will guarantee you a capacity at your landfill or Kankakee garbage for twenty years.  As Kankakee County grows the more that volume from Kankakee comes into that landfill it will displace out-of-county waste to a point where you could totally eliminate it.

After a brief discussion, the committee thanked Mr. Adelman and Mr. Hoekstra for discussing this issue with the ad hoc committee.

Mr. Slack said that one thing that he wanted the committee to think about is that when we discuss this we talked about sending this to the Planning and Zoning Committee.  He continued by saying that the County now has an Economic Development Committee and he thought that with much of the discussion that the committee had today that this issue could fall under that committee as well. Mr. Slack explained that we also talked about staff time that needed to be put into this because it requires so much technical knowledge of a variety of things that he feels that the County should talk about the possibility of putting money aside for a consulting firm to place the County at the same level as  Waste Management.  

Mr. Bockman said that last time the County did this we hired a very knowledgeable consultant and we asked Waste Management to pay for it.   

Mr. Slack said he is suggesting that no matter what committee it comes out of that we should move forward on that issue.  

Mr. Bockman said that there is no requirement that this committee send a recommendation through another committee to send it to the full board.

Mr. Slack said that if the County comes up with a new solid waste plan, once we determine what that is, and we say that we are going to continue to be a repository for solid waste at the County, how do we ensure that the County is indeed the host?  Once we determine that we are going to have a solid waste plan and Cortland decides then that they will decide to annex it, we can’t back out of the solid waste plan can we?  Mr. Bockman said no we can’t do that, you can’t block a municipal landfill now nor will you ever be able to.  

Chairman Tobias then asked the committee what the next step would be?   She feels that it would be to get the minutes out and goals, to begin to gather the information that is out there.

Mr. Steimel feels that we have two options.  One is expansion of the present site and the other is a transfer station.  

Mr. Bockman said that currently we have 300 tons a day and adding another 700 tons would total 1,000 tons a day.  The only problem with that is that you have a landfill of only 3 or 4 years then.  

Mr. Steimel continued by saying that the other two options are to do nothing and to build another landfill site in DeKalb County.  The committee felt that building another site was no longer an option.

After a brief discussion the committee decided that their next meeting would be a breakfast meeting on September 21, 2006 at 8:00a.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East.

     Respectfully submitted,

     _________________________________

     Ruth Anne Tobias, Chairman