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Planned
sewage plant fuels concerns
Chicago Tribune
- 2/2
The
creek that runs behind Steve Ellis' house in rural Kendall County
is small, slow-moving, and every decade or so, nearly dries up.
But
even so, Aux Sable Creek is home to the stone fly, a delicate
aquatic insect that dies in polluted waterways.
"If
you find a bunch of cockroaches, that doesn't say anything for
the quality of your stream," said Ellis, who helped the Illinois
Department of Natural Resources trap insects and measure the stream,
which--in part because of the stone fly--was designated a "highly
valued waterway" by the state.
Ellis,
other Kendall County residents and environmentalists are concerned
about Joliet's plan to build a sewage treatment facility near
the Aux Sable Creek and pipe the treated sewage to the DuPage
River.
Joliet
officials originally proposed to discharge the plant's eventual
maximum effluent of 8 million gallons of treated sewage per day
into the Aux Sable. But public outcry forced the city to change
its plan last month to instead pump the effluent through several
miles of underground pipes to the DuPage River.
Still,
concerns persist because Joliet's two existing treatment plants
have exceeded state standards for ammonia and copper in their
discharges. And opponents also fear the proposed plant's proximity
to Aux Sable Creek could prompt the city to request permission
to discharge into the creek at some future date.
Those
issues will be aired March 4 when the Northeastern Illinois Planning
Commission hosts a hearing in Yorkville on whether Joliet should
be allowed to build the plant, at a cost of about $43 million,
and to expand its facilities planning area into a greater part
of Kendall County.
Eventually,
the city wants to increase its planning area to include an additional
18-square-mile area in Kendall County, where about 70,000 residents
could one day live. Already, a few thousand Joliet residents live
in a small part of Kendall County. A municipality has authority
to provide sewer and water service in its planning area, and such
a designation frequently precedes annexation.
Joliet
wants to continue to annex land to increase its tax base, said
James Haller, director of community and economic development.
"The
rooftops bring you additional commercial development, that brings
additional sales tax," he said.
But
Joliet's plans have many Kendall County residents worried. John
Church, Kendall County Board chairman, said many would like to
see the county remain rural.
But
with many farmers willing to sell their land--and many people
willing to buy houses in the far, outlying suburbs--he said most
people understand the new houses and new residents will come.
The trick, as he sees it, is to ensure that the developments preserve
natural features, such as creeks.
"We
still all have to try and get on the same page with those issues,"
Church said. "And that's a challenge."
Environmentalists
agree the DuPage River is a better option for discharge of wastewater
than the Aux Sable because the river is larger and can more easily
absorb the increased volume of water. But they worry that the
plant would be a setback to efforts to improve the river's water
quality. Treated sewage is nutrient-rich, causing algae to grow,
which in turn lowers the level of oxygen in the water to the detriment
of fish and other wildlife, they said.
"The
problem with the DuPage [is that] it's already got nutrient problems,
among other things," said Albert Ettinger, a senior staff
attorney for Chicago's Environmental Law & Policy Center.
"So, they're trying to add something to a water in which
they've already got problems."
Brook
McDonald, executive director of Naperville-based Conservation
Foundation, said he'd like to see Joliet explore pumping the effluent
directly into the Illinois River, which is an even larger stream.
In
addition, the environmentalists want Joliet to more strongly consider
a land application system, which would keep the treated sewage
out of the waterways to begin with. In that system, treated sewage
is applied to the soil on a farm field, golf course or other suitable
property.
But
Joliet officials say their only feasible option is to put the
effluent water into a waterway, a common practice for Chicago-area
sewage treatment plants, because of the cost of a land-based system.
About
1,800 acres at a cost of about $90 million would be required for
a land-based disposal system, city officials estimate.
"It
[a land system] is not really in the running, from a financial
end," said Dennis Duffield, Joliet's director of public works
and utilities.
But
some experts disagree, saying that land applications are underused
because of a lack of will, not the expense. John Sheaffer, president
of Sheaffer & Roland Inc. of Geneva, an engineering consulting
firm that specializes in the procedure, said treated water can
be shipped to farm fields or to golf courses at a different location,
instead of having a community buy all the land.
Or,
he said communities could buy smaller tracts of land to phase
in a program, instead of buying the maximum amount of land all
at once.
Haller
argued advances in technology have improved the process of removing
harmful contaminants from sewage, which means discharging into
waterways is becoming safer. He said the city's West Side plant,
which discharges its treated wastewater into the Des Plaines River,
is undergoing a $15 million expansion to correct the ammonia problem.
In
addition, officials are working to determine the source of the
high levels of copper discharged from the East Side plant into
Hickory Creek at its junction with the Des Plaines River.
But
those improvements don't appease all opponents.
"Joliet
has a poor history of operating their sewage treatment plants,"
McDonald said. "Why should we believe they're going to do
a good job?"
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