The DeKalb County Ad Hoc Solid Waste Committee met on Monday, February 21, 2007, @ 9:00a.m. in the Legislative Center’s Freedom Room.  Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias called the meeting to order.  Members present were Vince Faivre, Pat Vary and Roger Steimel.  Staff present were Ray Bockman, Paul Miller, and Bob Drake.   Others present were Chris Burger and Ron Swager of Patrick Engineering.

Chairman Tobias mentioned that Mr. Slack is no longer on the county board so she asked the committee members that if they thought of someone that might be interested to contact her.  Mr. Steimel said that he would support asking Mr. Ken Andersen who took Mr. Slack’s place as his replacement since he is from that area.  Chairman Tobias said that the decision does not have to be made until the next committee meeting.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

            Moved by Ms. Vary, seconded by Mr. Faivre, and it was carried unanimously to approve the minutes of November 2006

DISCUSSION WITH PATRICK ENGINEERING

Mr. Chris Burger of Patrick Engineering said that today’s meeting is a discussion on the status of the project.

He said that they anticipated this meeting to be an Interim meeting to receive feedback from the committee and share ideas. At the next meeting they will present a draft of all of their scope.  They can send the materials out to the members prior to the meeting. He feels that they will be able to get through 95% of the scope that is suggested here.

They have been involved in looking at some of the scope items, like population trends, waste generation plotted out.  He further stated that this is part of the whole Waste Management scenario, that is, what kind of waste do you have, what kind of waste can you handle in the future, and then how do we propose to address that? 

The complicated issue of being right where you are at is that you have a lot of activity all around you.  They also spoke with Mr. Bockman about delaying some of the early analyses to see how some of these other counties’ projects are progressing because waste is not only a county issue, but it is a regional issue.  You have a lot  of waste going through your county, most notable activity right now is in Rochelle, but also in Kendall County.  Kendall County does not have a landfill right now and there are discussions of three places there.

All of those items do have an impact on how we view the facility here, whether it would be direct haul, transfer haul or the possibility of the expansion of this landfill or another one. The existing landfill is difficult to expand because of the drainage ditch and the current cost of land, explained Mr. Burger.  It is not an “undoable” thing. One of their tasks is to at least look at an in-county landfill. 

They ran some preliminary numbers, but he did not want to share those with the committee today other than the sizing, which looks to be around a 55-acre size landfill to handle waste for DeKalb County for the next 25 years.

Mr. Burger said that he wants to provide us with some preliminary figures on direct haul costs, that is, hauling waste to the existing facility versus all the other disposal sites in the region.  These are estimates based on their best information on what it costs to operate a truck, fuel prices and all that.  If the landfill closes it will have a direct impact on your costs, that is, if you have to travel further away to haul your waste.

Mr. Bockman asked Mr. Burger if the fees are regulated by whoever owns the landfill?

Mr. Burger said yes, the landfill can charge whatever they want.  They have to post the gate rates.

Mr. Bockman, asked how does this ordinarily work?  Here in DeKalb County we have a hauler who owns the landfill, is that typical? 

Mr. Burger said that there are different business units, there is a hauling unit and a landfill unit.  There is payment for that hauler to dump their waste at favored rates. 

Chairman Tobias asked if Northern Illinois Disposal goes to our landfill?

Mr. Bob Drake of the DeKalb County Health Department, Environmental Division, stated that it goes to Rochelle.

Ms. Vary asked that with the preliminary figures showing the landfill to eventually be 55- acres, how high is that?

Mr. Burger said about 70 feet high and 30 feet deep.

Mr. Vary asked what is the acreage of the present landfill?

Mr. Steimel said close to that number.

Mr. Bockman asked if that 55-acres includes the buffer?

Mr. Burger said yes.

Mr. Steimel further explained that there were several phases of the current landfill.  It started in 1960 – Phase I -as a gravel pit.  That equals about 47 years.

Waste Management has owned it for about the last 10 years.  Therefore, Phase II had a liner under it.  Phase III is now.

Mr. Steimel asked Mr. Burger what the height is of the current landfill?

Mr. Burger said if he had to guess, somewhere around 40 or 50 feet.

Mr. Paul Miller, DeKalb County Planning and Zoning Director asked Mr. Burger if there were other issues that need to be resolved or clarified?

Mr. Burger said no, he just wants to make sure that everyone is in agreement with the scope that they are going to follow.  They are basically looking at providing us with what the cost estimates are on a transfer station, county owned landfill, to increase the landfill to 1,000 tons a day, and direct hauling.  The direct haul costs is highly dependent upon issues such as the Rochelle landfill since that is really your nearest direct haul option.  If that site is approved, it provides you a discreet, solid, direct haul option.

Mr. Miller asked Mr. Burger if it is a sure thing that Rochelle would be approved?

Mr. Burger said that he is not sure, it was denied twice before.  It is a unique situation, the city is the applicant and the city is the will make the decision on it.

Mr. Steimel said that he thought that 8 to 10% of our garbage is going to Rochelle now. 

Mr. Drake said that he would have recycling figures for the consultants by March 15, 2007.  He said that currently he has 2005 figures for Mr. Burger and 2006 figures would not change much, he feels.

Ms. Vary asked with regards to recycling, how much has it saved the county in capacity in our landfill?

Mr. Burger said that the Rochelle expansion would be for a 1,000 ton a day facility on average, which is about where they are now. 

Ms. Vary asked Mr. Burger what does he need from this committee today?

Mr. Burger said he wants to make sure that he is hearing what he has heard before from this committee.

Will you be able to provide anything on direct haul? Asked Mr. Miller.  Like scenario #1- Rochelle does expand, scenario #2 – Rochelle does not expand, etc.? 

Mr. Burger said yes, we have a number of ways …. there are 6 or 7 existing facilities with pricing.  Keep in mind we can look at it just strictly as your cost for direct haul, then we add their costs or tipping fees. 

Mr. Bockman asked if there was a waiting period for changing gate rates?

Mr. Burger said that he did not think so, he will check on that.

Chairman Tobais asked where are all of these trucks going through our County?

Mr. Burger said to Lee County and Prairie Hill. Waste Management sends waste north typically.

Mr. Steimel said that we need to look west because of the costs.

Mr. Faivre asked what is the timetable that we are looking at for the Rochelle approval? 

Mr. Burger said around October 1, 2007.

Mr. Steimel asked if once the application is approved does it then go to the EPA for approval?

Mr. Burger said yes. 

Mr. Steimel asked about the leakage that we have at the current old landfill, what is the status on that? 

Mr. Drake said that he did not know.

Mr. Steimel said that they did place fast growing trees to get the roots down there, about twenty feet.

Chairman Tobias asked what is out next step?

Mr. Burger said that they can get a 90 to 95% draft report in about 4 weeks for the committee.

Ms. Vary said that we are also seeking some of your advice about things that we may not have thought about.

Some of the other items that the committee said that they would like to see in the draft report is:

-                     The clarification on the minimum amount of waste that Waste

Management would want?  Maybe they should invite Waste Management back for another meeting.

-           What are the transfer stations around here taking in?

-            They want copies of Host Agreements of surrounding areas if possible.

Chairman Tobias summarized by stating that once the consultants are ready to

present their findings and report they should contact the county board office.  The next meeting date then would be set.  She said that she would like to be looking at the end of March 2007.

ADJOURNMENT

Moved by Mr. Steimel, seconded by Ms. Vary, and it was carried unanimously to adjourn the meeting.

                                                            Respectfully submitted.

                                                            _______________________________  

                                                            Chairman Ruth Anne Tobias

RAT:mcs

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