Garbage transfer station to open Monday in Round Lake Park
The first waste transfer station in Lake County will begin operations Monday morning.
Garbage trucks will empty their loads on the concrete floor of the facility at Route 120 and Porter Drive in Round Lake Park, and trash will be put in larger trucks and taken to a Rockford landfill.
The facility operated by Groot Industries Inc., which has a hauling yard and natural gas fueling station just to the north, was years in the process. It met with resistance from some homeowners who feared noise and odors, but the project was upheld in court, clearing the way for the recently completed construction.
It is the first transfer station opened since Lake County's solid waste plan was amended in 2009 to allow such uses, said Walter Willis, executive director of the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County.
"Just from seeing it, we're very pleased with the appearance and hope it operates as explained to Round Lake Park and SWALCO," he said
Groot's agreements with Lake County and the solid waste agency prohibited an opening before June 1, but the company agreed to make up the difference in fees to those entities that would have been paid to dump at the Countryside Landfill in Grayslake.
Groot said the transfer station would receive 300 to 400 tons of garbage per day initially, but is allowed to receive up to 1,000 tons per day.
"All the garbage handling, the dumping and reloading onto transfer trailers, happens under roof," Willis said. Those trailers carry the equivalent of 2½ typical garbage trucks, allowing route drivers to be more productive, he added.
Lake County is authorized by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to oversee its regulations regarding the transfer station, and the county health department's solid waste unit will make visits and checks.One provision of the agreement is the transfer trailers can only turn right onto Route 120 heading west.