A proposed 142-acre balefill near Bartlett would be more expensive to build than four smaller scattered site dumps, according to a study released Monday by Bartlett officials.
The study, conducted by the environmental consulting firm of Noble & Associates, states that it would be cheaper to build four, 66-acre balefills, each operating for five years. The proposed balefill near Bartlett would operate for 20 years.
The cost of building four smaller sites would be $11.2 million cheaper than building the Bartlett site, according to the study. The study goes on to say that trucking garbage out to the farthest corner of Cook County also would add $34.5 million to transportation costs over 20 years.
Currently, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is studying the site selection process conducted by the Solid Waste Management Agency of Northern Cook County, the suburban consortium that wants to build the balefill. It is expected to rule on the environmental impact of the proposed balefill by the end of the year and Bartlett officials say they hope the Army Corps of Engineers will take their newest study into consideration.
Brooke Beal, assistant to the director at the solid waste agency, said a formal response to the study will be made later this week, but he then went on to question the statistics used by Noble & Associates. Beal said the study did not take into account the expenses of seeking a permit. The study, he said, wrongly assumes that other sites will not need all the same expensive environmental safety measures required by the Bartlett site.
”It is a matter of economy of scale,” Beal said. ”We believe it would be much cheaper to develop one site instead of four. Also (under Bartlett`s proposal) we would need all four sites and if we were unable to get one we would have financing problems.”
Bartlett Village President John Stark said the study illustrates that the solid waste agency ”arbitrarily” chose the Bartlett site because it was one of the few large open tracts of land left in Cook County. The smaller balefill sites would be cheaper and safer, he said.
”They have arbitrarily inflated the cost of dumping and the transportation costs,” Stark said. ”They have not clued their taxpayers on how much this is really costing them.”
Stark said the recent study cost Bartlett $5,000 to $6,000 and is part of a larger study that the Village Board must still approve. A complete alternative-site study will cost another estimated $40,000, he said. Bartlett officials estimate that they have already spent more than $280,000 in fighting the balefill.
