Work on Lake County's first waste transfer station underway
Work is underway on a controversial project in Round Lake Park that generated 40 hours of public hearings before a divided village board granted approval in late 2013.
Without fanfare, earth is being moved at Route 120 and Porter Drive for what will be Lake County's first waste transfer station. First suggested several years ago, the transfer station being built by Groot Industries Inc. is envisioned as part of a larger complex to include a construction and demolition debris recycling facility.
The waste collector since 2010 has operated a hauling yard for its Lake County operations on the site and subsequently installed a natural gas fueling station farther north on Porter Drive. Groot already has state permission to build a construction and demolition debris recycling facility on 14 acres immediately to the south.
At a transfer station, garbage trucks dump their loads on a cement floor. The trash then is transferred to larger trucks to be taken to a landfill. Transfer stations are regarded by Groot as a cost-effective measure to combat dwindling local landfill space, as more garbage makes longer trips to more distant landfills.
Nearly two years ago, the company applied to the village to build and operate the facility on the 4-acre property. Local siting approval took six months. Groot also has received the go-ahead from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and has applied for or received the necessary building permits.
Engineering and other details were finalized this past winter and construction has begun, according to company chief Larry Groot.
"We anticipate the Lake Transfer and Recycling Facility to be complete sometime late this year or first quarter of 2016 with the Eco Campus sometime after that," Groot said.
While the work continues, so does a legal challenge mounted by the neighboring Timber Creek Homes, a 247-unit mobile home park immediately west of the site. Timber Creek appealed the village's decision to Illinois Pollution Control Board, which last summer found no evidence village trustees had predetermined the outcome and called the proceedings "fundamentally fair."
The pollution control board's finding has been challenged by Timber Creek. The appeal is pending in 2nd District Appellate Court.
"It's really odors are the main concern," said Larry Cohn, Timber Creek owner. "We've been waiting awhile. We'll just have to see what happens."
The transfer station is expected to handle 750 tons of municipal waste per day. The concrete and steel structure would be 40 feet high and span 27,800 square feet.
Local approval came with two dozen conditions to address concerns - including noise, odors and pests - expressed by the village, as well as officials in Round Lake, Grayslake, Hainesville and the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County.
Round Lake Park trustees, for example, last month approved an ordinance that prohibits left turns for truck traffic from Porter Drive onto Route 120.
"There's obviously no storage of garbage at the site. It's important to stress that fact," said Village Attorney Peter Karlovics.
While the facility may make sense for Groot, it will result in a loss for the county and waste agency. Each would receive 45 cents per ton of trash deposited at the transfer station. Currently, the county gets $2.50 a ton and the agency receives 95 cents per ton from Groot for garbage dumped at the Countryside landfill in Grayslake.
"Both of us lose revenue. That's why we wanted to delay the start of the facility as long as we could," said Solid Waste Agency of Lake County Executive Director Walter Willis.
Groot dumps about 300 tons of trash per day at Countryside, Willis added. Countryside has seven years of landfill space remaining, but that likely will be extended once the transfer station opens and Groot begins shipping garbage elsewhere, he said.
The county and the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County have host agreements with Groot that say the company can't begin operating the transfer station before June 1, 2016, without approval by both.
Willis said he expects this transfer station won't be the only one in Lake County, as it is difficult to find new landfill space nearby.
"They're just a reality of an urban county like ours that will run out of landfill capacity," he said.