Evanston officials hope to resolve a five-and-a-half-year-old dispute with operators of the trash transfer station on Church Street with a City Council vote tonight.
Residents who complained about odors and rat problems at the transfer station back in 2010 led the city to more aggressively enforce nuisance ordinances and to impose a $2 per ton fee on the transfer operation and fight to block what it called an expansion of the station’s operation, which also included landscaping the entrance to the facility..
The company, then known Veolia Waste Management and now known as Advanced Disposal Services, sued to challenge the fee and now City Attorney Grant Farrar is proposing a settlement that would let the changes to the facility move forward and that would cut the city’s fee to $0.75 per ton.
The current entryway to the transfer station.
Under the settlement, the city would be allowed to keep the over $1.25 million in fees the company has paid under protest since filing the suit but would be barred from filing any future claims against the company regarding the past operation of the transfer station.
A diagram of the planned changes at the transfer station.
The city would not collect any transfer fees this year. The new, lower fee wouldn’t go into effect until 2017 and the city would be forever barred from increasing it.
The company and city would also establish a Host Community Agreement that would provide a process for handling complaints about the station’s operation and city inspection of the facility.
The transfer station has operated at the site at 1711 Church St. since 1984 under a license issued by the state Environmental Protection Agency.
Related stories
Residents doubt Veolia can be good neighbor (1/21/2011)
How it works: Veolia transfer station (11/29/2010)