The DeKalb County Ad Hoc Solid Waste Committee met on Thursday, October 26, 2006, @ 8:00a.m. in the Legislative Center’s Freedom Room.  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 Mayor of Cortland, Bob Seyller, Lee Adelman and Dale Hoekstra of Waste Management, Chris Martel of Camp Dresser and McKee, Inc. and Chris Burger of Patrick Engineering, Inc.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

            Moved by Ms. Vary, seconded by Mr. Steimel, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes of September 21, 2006.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

            Moved by Ms. Vary, seconded by Mr. Faivre, and it was carried unanimously to approve the agenda as presented.

PRESENTATION BY WASTE MANAGEMENT

            Chairman Tobias introduced Mr. Lee Adelman and Mr. Dale Hoekstra of Waste Management to the committee. 

            Mr. Adelman said that they had purchased a landfill in the 1990’s off of Somonauk Road at the junction of I-88.  During that period refuse was in place on the property itself and in both lined and unlined areas.  The unlined portion of the site is a matter of contention for this committee and the County.   The County is desirous of seeing Waste Management come out with a proposal that would attempt to address that unlined area.  Because of that Waste Management and the County have had conversations quite a while back about the various options that they might be able to discuss with the County. 

            The Town of Cortland is north of the landfill.  There have been talks with them for many months about the possibility of Cortland’s annexation of properties down to the highway that would facilitate the potential annexation of the landfill. 

There were a few issues that needed to be addressed with regard to that.  Most notably is the Union Ditch, which runs along the south and southeast portion of their site and then goes up towards Cortland.  Union Ditch is a farm drainage area and has a very low flow rate. Any activity here has the potential to impact the ditch. 

Mr. Adelman said that the reason that they are here is the issue of their landfill.  Out of the 59 landfills in the State of Illinois, basically 2 of them are restricted.  Those two restricted landfills are the DeKalb landfill and the Prairie View landfill, which is in Will County.  They are averaging around 300 tons a day in the DeKalb site.  This is a difficult thing for them and they are getting a lot of pressure from their corporate offices to find a way to address this issue.  Because of this they are coming to the County to help them address this issue so that they are not forced into a situation to close the facility.

What to do with this site is one of the discussion points that they wanted to talk about today said Mr. Adelman.  The restriction is on out-of-county waste, which allows us to bring in up to 10% of out-of-county waste for cross border operations.  What he means is that if they have a roll off that occurs near the Kane County border they are allowed to bring into this facility no more than 10%.  In all the years of their operations they have never come close to that number.  The existing site has approximately 9 years of life left.

One of the proposals that they have placed before the County is the possibility of lifting the restriction on the out-of-county waste to enable them to get corporate to not look at it as an underperforming asset.  They need to bring the volumes up to the point where it makes sense to continue operating.  The County has been very responsive to Waste Management with forming this committee, of which they are very appreciative.  If, in fact, the County opens up the borders to an out-of-county volume, is still to be determined.

Mr. Adelman continued by saying, obviously, the first impact would be the lessening of the life of the site.  If we brought in 600 tons of out-of-county refuse and add it to the 300 tons of the County’s current waste tonnage, we would cut the life of the site by 2/3rds.  In so doing, the 172 process is a long task and three years may not be enough time to get everything done that we need to get done.  At some point in the future the discussion on the restriction of out-of county volume is one of the central issues that we are going to be talking to the County about, said Mr. Adelman.

There are some proposals that they are looking at for DeKalb County, Mr. Adelman further stated.  The first proposal is the lifting of restrictions to allow them to increase the volume.  The second proposal is during that 3-year period they would suggest the idea of a transfer site.  The costs of putting up these types of buildings now would run between $7 to $10 million dollars. If you want to get LEADS Certification, you are pushing the higher end of that spectrum – at $10 million.  Their corporate offices are saying that if they can’t get this fraction of potential profit on any project, stop doing it for practice.  When they ran the numbers for the transfer station, they fell short.  They fell short of the number that they needed to get the capital that it would take to build it.  The capital rate of return they would need to make the numbers work under the current circumstances is close to 2,000 tons a day. 

Mr. Adelman then showed the committee different maps of current facilities within the Chicagoland area and beyond.  He said that the River Bend facility in Dolton, had 6 million tons and now has 1.5 million tons of capacity left.  They are now looking at Kankakee, which is closing, there are 3 proposals in Kendall County, Rochelle is looking at expanding their facility, and there is a facility in Lee County near Amboy.  They are closing Settler’s Hill after 26 years there.  There will be a need for a new home for the refuse from there totaling 3,000 to 4,000 tons a day. 

A transfer station needs to be in close proximity because hauling trucks need to drop off the waste product and be on the road again within a one-hour timeframe.  There is one transfer station in Elburn, one in Joliet, one near Wilmington and one in Elgin.

Mr. Steimel asked Mr. Adelman, where does the waste from the Elgin transfer station go?   Mr. Hoekstra said that they have two options that they can send it to.  They can go north to Pheasant Run, but right now they will send it out to Prairie Hill.  Their northern option in Wisconsin is running out of capacity for their own waste.  There is a lot of waste going up north from Illinois, said Mr. Hoekstra. Because of this there are two directions that the waste can go to from Elgin. They have an agreement with Allied who will be bringing them materials into that transfer station.  They will transload their portion of the materials (Allied) to their Dixon facility.  Waste Management’s materials will be run out to their Morris facility (Prairie Hill), said Mr. Hoekstra.  The same thing will happen at the Elburn site.  The Allied materials will be sent to their Dixon site and Waste Management’s materials will be sent to Prairie Hill in Morrison.

Mr. Adelman summarized by stating that our 300 tons daily plus 1,000 tons, totaling 1300 tons does not work for them with a transfer station. 

Ms. Vary said that the option that what she is hearing is only going to work for about three years, that is, bring in more volume, then we will fill up our landfill, and now we are not in the right place for a transfer station.

Mr. Hoekstra said that the volume in DeKalb County is just not there.  A landfill works better for Waste Management because a landfill takes in other communities’ waste.

Mr. Adelman also stated that they have no land underfoot yet.  They could look at land south and southeast of their current location.  They might be able to assemble 200 acres if they look there, but they can’t promise anything. In DeKalb County they can’t find affordable land prices right now.

He further stated that the County could lift the landfill restriction and that this would help them. 

The committee discussed that the truck traffic would increase too.

Mr. Hoekstra said that they would need about 2,000 tons a day coming into the DeKalb landfill to make it work.  Plus the 350 tons that we already take in a day, would total 2,350 tons a day, he further stated.

The committee discussed how the payment would increase for the citizens because the refuse would have to go west if they close this landfill.  The money for the County would be gone too.  The trucks that haul the waste will now need to take two hours instead of one hour.  A lot of things would change.

The committee thanked Mr. Adelman and Mr. Hoekstra for their presentation.

The committee agreed that the two consultants present today would send their proposals to Chairman Tobias and the committee.  The committee will choose a consultant for the project in the very near future.  The Chairman will email everyone with the next meeting date.

Moved by Ms. Vary, seconded by Mr. Steimel, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

                                                            Respectfully submitted.

                                                            _______________________________  

                                                            Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias