The DuPage County Board on Tuesday soundly rejected a proposed garbage-transfer station near West Chicago that would have been a quarter-mile from the county’s only other waste-transfer site.
The 16-2 vote came before a standing-room-only crowd of mostly West Chicago officials, lawyers and residents, about 20 of whom spoke out against the proposed facility.
The speakers, including West Chicago Mayor Michael Fortner, denounced the proposal, calling it unfair to “cluster” another station in the same area, and arguing that it would reduce property values, exacerbate traffic and create safety and sanitary problems.
Bob Allison, principal of Norton Creek Elementary School in West Chicago, said he was worried that the facility could bring foul odors, pests and respiratory ailments to students at his school, which is about a half-mile away.
“What are we saying about the value of our children and their education if we put a waste-transfer site so close to their school?” he asked.
In vetoing the proposal, board members said the application to add the 1,000-ton-per-day transfer station to waste entrepreneur Kenneth Hoving’s recycling facility on Powis Road failed to prove there was a need, because the other station is not operating at full capacity. They also cited county waste-removal plans, which call for transfer sites to be spread throughout the county, and stated they were not satisfied with the plans to minimize the danger of fires and spills.
The two County Board members who voted for the plan–Grant Eckhoff (R-Wheaton) and Michael McMahon (R-Hinsdale)–said they were swayed by the approval of a legal adviser to the board, who reviewed the application and staged 15 public hearings last summer.
Hoving Recycling & Disposal Inc. attorney Terry Ekl said the company will explore options to appeal.
Before the vote, Ekl asked why, if waste-transfer stations hurt the community, West Chicago permitted the DuKane Transfer Station to increase its daily tonnage. He noted that the city receives more than $700,000 in yearly fees from the station.
Because the proposed station would have been just outside city limits, the county would have received fees of about $440,000 a year, he had said.
Nobody likes waste-transfer stations, but his client’s application met all the necessary criteria, he said.
“The only reason you may vote it down today is because it would not be a politically smart thing to do, and I think that would be deplorable,” he said.
According to state records, Groot Industries Inc., which owns the 3,000-ton-per-day DuKane facility, has donated more than $220,000 since August to 4 the People, a West Chicago grass-roots organization that opposes the waste-transfer station.
Paul Bauer, chairman of the 4 the People, said Groot provided the means to fight the proposal, although he said the company may have had different motivations than the residents.
“Would another waste-transfer station have an impact on their business?” he said. “I’m sure.”
Board member Kyle Gilgis (R-Downers Grove), who was chairman of the board’s Solid Waste Committee before it was dissolved in 2002, said the county could use another waste-transfer station, perhaps somewhere to the south.
In other business Tuesday, the board approved a resolution authorizing the county’s Development and Environmental Concerns and Stormwater Departments to begin accepting credit and debit cards for paymentand fees. It also approved $155,218 to equip 75 more traffic lights with devices allowing police, fire and ambulance vehicles to pre-empt signals, enabling them to get to an emergency quicker.
The board also announced that the county has received $2 million in federal funds to build a 2.4-mile bikeway linking the Lisle Metra Station, Benedictine University, Benet Academy, Lisle’s Community Park, Lisle High School and several residential and business areas.
