Law's construction costs leave municipalities reeling

A Senate bill that called for more extensive testing of construction debris from municipal and private projects breezed through the General Assembly, but it is now suffering whiplash as municipalities across the state voice opposition to added costs and a lack of defined standards.

The bill, which originally set goals for recycling of TVs and computer equipment, was amended to require additional testing for each construction project to ensure that volatile organic compounds don't make it into fill sites that lack liners. Clean construction and demolition debris requirements were passed in 2005, but the new amendments are much stricter and apply to soil instead of just other debris like concrete and asphalt.

Now municipal engineers and public works departments are dealing with unexpected costs and unknown standards that will affect almost every construction project they start.

Tim Schmitz, a state representative from Batavia and one of the few to vote against the bill, said it was all the moving parts that turned him off undefined terms and unspecified fees and the burden it would place on locals.

In Carpentersville, it's an extra $9,000 for the design phase of a street project. Officials aren't sure how much it will add to construction costs because everyone is still trying to figure out what the law means.

“The construction cost implications could potentially be much greater,” said Scott Marquardt, Carpentersville's village engineer.

But if everything is clean during design, Marquardt says, there likely won't have to be additional testing during construction.

Part of the problem with the new law is its vagueness, Marquardt and other municipal engineers said. It passed without definitions for what contaminated soil actually is. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has until July 2011 to make recommendations, and then the Illinois Pollution Control Board has until the following year to adopt the final regulations.

Until then, the IEPA is leaving it up to the judgment of professional engineers to decide what they think is clean, largely based on existing scales.

Anyone engaging in large construction projects must have someone sign a form assuring the IEPA the soil is clean and authorizing a move of the debris from industrial or commercial areas to mines, quarries or other large excavations.

“They want you to sign your name to it saying it's clean but they don't have any definitions of what clean soil is,” said Dan Dinges, director of public works in Geneva. “It's hard to sign something like that when you don't know what you're signing for.”

One Geneva storage yard is filling up with soil Dinges doesn't want to move until he has a better grasp of the implications of the new law.

Doug Clay, manager of the Division of Land Pollution Control with the IEPA, said the agency has received more questions than it expected since the law went into effect on July 30. But when people call with questions about how many samples are sufficient to declare soil uncontaminated, for example, Clay said the IEPA doesn't want to tell professional engineers how to do their jobs.

“They need to look at the potential for contamination and use their professional judgment as to how many samples need to be taken,” Clay said.

In Naperville, City Engineer Bill Novack said frustration has subsided in the last couple of months. The city has figured out how it will interpret the law and is looking at ways to make less soil waste from projects like sewer main breaks to reduce the testing necessary.

William Delgado, a state senator from Humboldt Park, voted for the bill with every other senator and all but 22 members of the House. He said he respects the frustration caused by added fees but voted “pro-health.” The testing will make sure everyone has access to more information about the quality of soil being put into fill sites and it will make construction greener, Delgado said.

But Delgado also said he didn't want the state to turn its back on struggling municipalities if the new law creates too much strain.

“I'm sure there's a way to get in the middle,” Delgado said. “Especially in the current economy.”

That is what Schmitz is recommending to his frustrated constituents. He is encouraging discussion about this law now, even though nothing can be introduced until January.

John Heinz, director of public works in Libertyville, would like to see the law changed. Like his peers in Geneva, Carpentersville and across the state, he would have liked to get some notice about the law before it went into effect and maybe had a say in the outcome.

“A little bit of communication would have helped avoid a lot of angst and trying to rescind this whole thing,” Heinz said. “It's not a good situation.”