Buffalo Grove landfill planning to phase out composting, official says

Land & Lakes Co. plans to phase out its controversial composting operation in Buffalo Grove over the course of this year, the village president said Thursday following a four-hour meeting with company representatives earlier this week.

The site has been the source of discussion by the village board concerning complaints by surrounding businesses about odors. In particular, Trustee Lisa Stone has contacted federal, state and county officials about complaints. They've said they found no major permit violations.

Stone said she was not allowed to attend the meeting, but she lauded the outcome.

"That's exactly what I was hoping for - it was a health issue. And as we know the odors were making it very difficult for people in that area to comfortably breathe and work. So I think it is a good thing that he (Cowhey) voluntarily agreed to do."

Buffalo Grove Village President Elliott Hartstein said he, Village Manager William Brimm and Village Attorney William Raysa met Tuesday afternoon with Land & Lakes representatives, including James Cowhey, who is the company president and the mayor of Lake Forest, Margaret Cowhey, a company vice president, Marty Hanley, a key company official, and attorneys Matt Norton and Frank Lyons.

Hartstein, who e-mailed a summary of the meeting to a reporter, said any questions about it will be addressed by the village board's Finance Committee, which meets on Monday.

Land & Lakes is permitted to compost under its state license for the site, at 1300 Milwaukee Ave., but Hartstein said it doesn't plan to accept additional material for composting. It will continue composting existing leaves to create mulch until the inventory is depleted and sold by the end of the year. A new product to combat odors will be utilized in processing.

Officials from the firm also said they will be putting up a berm inside their property line to the south to provide screening for surrounding businesses from the trucks entering and exiting the transfer station, which will continue to operate. They do not intend to grind the material before transferring it off-site.

Hartstein also said in his summary that Land & Lakes "spent much time sharing their frustration" with the time they spend on complaints initiated by Stone.

"They also emphasized and characterized the complaints initiated by Trustee Stone as frivolous, wrongful, and without basis, and believed that they had been defamed and that their reputation had been wrongfully maligned," Harstein said.

Stone defended her comments and actions.

"I'm not sure what part Mr. Cowhey is upset about because I never said anything defamatory and I was simply stating facts. - These people (in neighboring businesses) are feeling the pressure of this odor to a degree that others at a distance don't understand. So as a trustee I step up and I help them and I do what I can."

She reiterated her view that the composting is an incompatible use for the area and should not have been allowed.

The village and Land & Lakes also discussed the future of the site, which was annexed by the village in 2008 with the view to redeveloping it for commercial use. At that time, the site wasn't being used for composting and the company indicated it had no plans to compost there.

Redevelopment plans were derailed by the economic crisis, and Hartstein said Land & Lakes representatives said they believe it is unlikely that anything will break within the next year and a half.

Land & Lakes did receive an inquiry about locating a major corporate headquarters there, but agreed that wasn't in line with the village's goal of a commercial use, Hartstein said. The village board will evaluate whether at this point a corporate headquarters is an acceptable use and get back to Land & Lakes, he said.

Land & Lakes has done some preliminary work to move its transfer station to land it owns across the street on the east side of Milwaukee Avenue as planned when the land was annexed, but it is not likely to build until the village approves an end user for the west side, Hartstein said.

As for the odors, Harstein said Land & Lakes indicated that other than the complaints raised by Stone, the number of complaints they received in the last year amounted to less than a handful.

Land and Lakes representatives told Hartstein that several years ago, they were composting grass, twigs and leaves at the site, with grass having the greatest odor impact. They shifted composting from Buffalo Grove to a site near their packaging of composting for sale. But last year, with great demand for mulch, they started accepting leaves again.