The head of the Will County Board’s Land Committee expressed conditional support of a facility designed to treat leachate, a liquid containing solid-waste materials, at the closed Beecher landfill in eastern Will.
Terri Ann Wintermute (R-Bolingbrook) said she is recommending a special-use permit–with 13 conditions–for the facility. The operation, which relies heavily on a wetland-type system, would be at the south end of the 185-acre property near the intersection of Goodenow Road and Illinois Highway 1.
Wintermute, who chairs the board’s Land Use, Zoning And Planning Committee, said the Beecher Development Co.’s plans call for using a bed of vegetation to filter and collect the leachate from the above-ground landfill.
Wintermute told members of the County Board’s Executive Committee that the system copies a wetland, with the reeds helping to remove impurities from the water.
The impurities, she said, drop to the bottom of the reed bed, where they can be collected and removed.
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Cory Singer (R-Frankfort), a member of both committees, gave high marks to using reeds to filter the leachate. The system, Singer said, has been “tested and used many years in Europe and is highly supported by the EPA. It’s the preferable treatment for this type of leachate.”
But Singer acknowledged the county Forest Preserve District’s concerns that the reeds originally considered for the system are potentially “invasive.”
Forest district planning program supervisor Tim Good said the forest district is helping the landfill operators locate prospective plants and scientists. If appropriate native reed plants are unavailable, the forest district wants a strong program in place that monitors and controls the foreign reeds, Good said.
The full board is scheduled to consider the special use permit request Thursday.