Geneva landfill future not yet settled

What's that smell?

Settler's Hill landfill might be gone but that question continues to surface.

That's because as garbage decomposes, methane is produced. Part of that methane is burned off into the atmosphere -- a process that tends to emanate offensive odors from the big mound at Kirk Road and Fabyan Parkway in Geneva.

Extracted methane is used to power about 10 percent of Geneva's homes and will continue to do so for the next 20-25 years, at which point no more gas will be available, said Tim Harbaugh, Kane County's director of environmental management.

Although it's a lot quieter at the 200-acre site since the landfill closed a year ago, there's still work to be done.

"When the last garbage truck left the facility on Dec. 29th (2006), Waste Management still had a lot of work to do," Harbaugh said.

Waste Management operates the landfill, which is owned by Kane County. The company submitted a report to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency last month detailing the procedures that have been undertaken.

Those procedures, mandated by the IEPA, include installing acres of composite, clay and topsoil materials to cover the hill. The site has been seeded, fertilized and mulched. Underground storage tanks and scales also were removed.

Waste Management also is responsible for conducting minor repairs as needed to fences, drainage structures, monitoring points and methane gas extraction wells. The company also must analyze groundwater monitoring wells and report results to the IEPA quarterly for the next 30 years.

Those requirements are expected to cost the company $3.5 million over the next three decades, according to the Nov. 29 application submitted to the IEPA.

The landfill closure also has cut down on the number of garbage trucks traveling through the heavily trafficked intersection and the amount of debris flying downwind across Kirk Road on gusty days.

Now Kane County officials must decide what to do with the property. A similar discussion is taking place to determine the future of the neighboring 44-acre jail site, most of which will be vacated next year when the new jail and sheriff's office opens in St. Charles Township.

"You can't really separate the two (plans) but they're two distinct projects," said Phil Bus, the county development director. "There's a great deal they have in common and there's a relationship on the success of both."

A plan for Settler's Hill unveiled earlier this year features an outdoor music theater, a trail system leading to a celestial observatory at the landfill's 900-foot summit, a sledding hill, outdoor skating rink, and radio-controlled glider airplane field. A more detailed plan should be formulated in the next two years, Harbaugh said, meaning it will be a few years before residents can reap the full benefits of closing the landfill.

For the jail site, county officials are considering a redevelopment plan that includes a hotel/convention center, a senior housing complex and an office campus. County officials want to sell the site but don't know how much it's worth.

Discussions on the future of both properties have stalled over the past several months, due in part to the real estate slowdown, Bus said. The county board's the Fabyan Property Utilization Subcommittee, which is charged with overseeing the redevelopment, hasn't met since February.

"We're behind schedule a little with that," Bus acknowledged. "I don't want to say there's not as much urgency, but the real estate market's a little soft right now, so we're going to spend a little more time fine tuning some of the recommendations and analyzing the site a little more, looking at the market feasibility."

Bus expects the county's new economic development director, Chris Aiston, to develop a request for qualifications some time in 2008 to garner interest from developers regarding the jail site.

Cost estimates have not been developed for either redevelopment project.