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Landfill fund
use may be limited
Chicago Tribune
- 1/29
The
days of financing projects by dipping into funds set aside to
repair leaking landfills may be over for the DuPage County Forest
Preserve District, President Dewey Pierotti said Tuesday after
reviewing a long-awaited audit.
The
$195 million fund falls short of the money needed to cover the
worst-case liability scenarios and recreational improvements at
the district's nine closed landfills.
"I
definitely think it's going to change our attitude," Pierotti
said. "We were letting various departments of the Forest
Preserve District borrow money from the landfill fund for a lot
of things. We did it with the golf operation repeatedly. We were
thinking of using it as a source of revenue to build a garage,
and now we're not going to do that."
According
to the report presented at a Forest Preserve Commission meeting
Tuesday, a prudent approach requires that the fund have $232 million:
$156 million for repairs and cleanup costs over the next 40 years,
and $76 million for amenities at Mallard Lake and Greene Valley,
the district's two largest landfills.
Although
the fund is short of that mark, commissioners noted that poses
no immediate crisis for the district, because spending on recreational
improvements can be scaled back or slowed until the district gets
more money.
"We've
got more than enough to cover the environmental concerns; that
comes first. Once we get into it and look at the amenities, we
may have to build a $50,000 playground instead of a $100,000 playground,"
Pierotti said.
The
landfill fund came from tipping fees paid by waste haulers that
used the district-owned dumps.
It
was long assumed by many that the fund must be in surplus and
that the only question was how large. In June, the commission
hired the environmental consulting firm Arcadis G&M to determine
whether there is a surplus, factoring in possible liabilities.
In
presenting the $108,000 study to the commission, Arcadis Senior
Vice President J. Lawrence Hosmer commended the district for its
foresight in handling the fund.
"The
Forest Preserve District has recognized the potential for future
liabilities and planned appropriately, despite a shortfall for
planned recreational spending. The current total value of the
landfill funds is sufficient to address the environmental liabilities
of the nine sites for the ensuing 40 years," Hosmer said.
The
promised recreational improvements were an informal part of a
1992 settlement of suit brought by residents of Hanover Park near
Mallard Lake and of Naperville near Greene Valley. The residents
had decried the landfills as a nuisance, but the improvements
they were promised were not formalized in a court order.
"When
people were talking about a surplus, I don't think they realized
there was a recreational component," Commissioner Roger Kotecki
said. "Now that we know the numbers, maybe we just have to
scale back and slow down. But it doesn't mean we don't do it at
all. A promise is a promise is a promise."
The
audit highlighted the need to stop using landfill funds for other
projects, Kotecki and Pierotti said. In November, the commission
approved using $6 million from the fund to build a garage and
equipment storage building at Blackwell Forest Preserve, near
Warrenville, but Pierotti vetoed it, saying he wanted to wait
for the report.
Now,
he said, the project will be delayed indefinitely.
"With
this new picture we have of the funding, it's not a priority anymore,"
he said.
Commissioners
were considering using landfill funds for renovations to Naperville's
Country Lakes Golf Club, which the district is trying to acquire
through condemnation.
The
district will continue efforts to buy the land, but it probably
will scrap plans for $10 million to $15 million in improvements,
Pierotti said.
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