Letter: Environmental reasons to support waste station

As chair of the local Sierra Club, I am following the waste transfer station issue in West Chicago. Members of our executive committee met with concerned citizens from local groups discussing this topic.

Initially, we were concerned with "a waste dump in West Chicago" as an environmental justice issue. In addition, we also met with Lakeshore Recycling Systems (LRS) to hear about their plan.

This plan is not for a landfill or waste dump. It is an expansion of existing services on the property they now own and are doing recycling of materials such as construction waste. LRS now wants to add household garbage to their services.

The property is in an industrial park. Of particular concern to us is the attention to environmental impact. It appears that there is considerable attention to mitigate environmental concerns with an enclosed state-of-the-art building and air filtration system to protect the workers, and quickly closing doors as the trucks enter to protect the community.

This waste transfer station will make it possible for the collection vehicles to travel less distance on roads, decreasing their particulate emissions and fossil fuel usage, two concerns for air quality.

We also loaned the citizen group air monitors to ascertain the current impact on local air quality. Data shows there is no serious impact now.

We are dismayed that it appears influences have led residents to believe that this facility will do more harm than good. We advocate for aggressive monitoring to ensure compliance with commitments made in this process. With careful consideration, the River Prairie Group of the Sierra Club has determined that we will not oppose this permit request, and in fact support it.

Connie Schmidt, Chair

River Prairie Group

Sierra Club