Chairman Steve Morris called the regular monthly meeting of Peoria City County Landfill Committee to order on August 19, 2020, at 3 p.m. via Zoom or phone access, which was posted on the city Solid Waste Landfill Committee website ahead of the meeting. Member Zach Oyler was absent. No meeting had been held in July.  There were no public comments during the citizens opportunity to address the committee at the beginning of the meeting.
   A new business item was a request for discussion regarding the current state Pollution Control Board review of coal ash regulations and what that might mean to the landfill and if the committee might consider a comment letter.  WM said that coal ash should not be mixed with municipal solid waste as it interfe res with methane gas production and has other problems. Since the current WM landfill is filling its last area, any plans for coal ash would need to focus on the new Landfill #3. PDC agreed that coal ash needs to be in a monofill. Chairman Morris asked what would be a typical tonnage for coal ash from a power plant. Mr. Coulter commented that at other locations from ½ million to 2 million tons capacity were needed. Foth Engineering will look into this and have some figures for the next meeting. Committee member Williams asked for a refresher on coal ash and issues with it and that will also be planned. Foth did a screen share of a comment letter the Landfill Committee had done several years ago. Committee member Fox said he would consider the current situation similar to what the Committee did before and asked that this topic be on the agenda for the September Committee meeting.  
  

Peoria City/County Landfill Committee meeting March 18 was cancelled due to ongoing shut-downs and public safety directives for shelter in place.                       Joyce Blumenshine, Observer
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The regular third Wednesday of each month Peoria City County Landfill Committee meeting began at 3 p.m. at Peoria City Hall Room 404 with Chairman Steve Morris presiding and member Zach Oyler absent.
During the Foth Engineering report, committee member Rick Fox asked for more information regarding one of the special waste products approved for disposal. Mr. Fox referred to several comments on the Material Data Safety Sheet regarding toxicity of manganese sulfate monohydrate. The substance was accepted at the landfill because it was not a RCRA hazardous waste. The Foth review will turn down substances that could be a risk and they can also bring items of concern to the committee.
The gate audit check showed all procedures in place and being followed.  Due to the cold weather only one load of landfill leachate was reported for the previous month. Waste tonnage receipts were up for January 2020 which have helped landfill revenues and 13,168.18 tons were recorded compared to January 2019 which was 12,199.75 tons. Waste Management staff could not be present for the meeting and had sent notification to the Chairman.

​Chairman Steve Morris began the October 16th meeting reporting follow-up to the citizen comment at the September meeting regarding concern about run-off water affecting an adjacent citizen’s property. Mr. Morris thanked County Highway Engineer Amy McLaren for her prompt action in seeing that the blocked highway culvert causing the problem was cleaned. He said that this culvert is on the County list for replacement and was silted in.
The Foth Company landfill engineering report covered several special waste approvals, which included:

• some off-spec products and two other wastes that had prior committee approvals.
• The Illinois EPA is reviewing the Landfill Committee’s request to increase tonnage on several pre-approval waste items. The Agency reply is expected back in 90 to 120 days.
• Committee member Rick Fox asked if the Foth information on special wastes could provide more detail than the term ‘contaminated soil’ and asked that the cause of contamination be provided. 

​At the Peoria City/County Landfill Committee meeting Sept 18, the waste receipt report from Waste Management showed a drop in landfill tonnage for August 2019 with the year-to-date waste at 113,582 tons compared to 120,091.64 tons in 2018.

Foth staff presented a report researching declining waste trends at the current Peoria City County Landfill 2 (PCCL2), which was requested by the Landfill Committee. Several interesting bar graphs comparing amounts of recycling by year and tonnage at the landfill along with other analyses reached the following conclusions:

• recycling has a relatively minor effect overall on the landfill as the total tonnage is very small in comparison to total waste receipts at PCCL2 even with the new Peoria options of no-fee recycling toters and city-wide curbside pick-up;
• changes in the waste industry are affecting PCCL2 waste receipts as many former municipal solid waste collection companies that previously disposed of waste at PCCL2 are either closing or being purchased by other waste companies and these waste streams are being sent to other locations. The research showed PDC is gaining market share and Waste Management, Inc., appears to be having a reduction; in a comparison of tonnage  of waste received, the PDC Indian Creek Landfill at Hopedale shows an increasingly higher tonnage received while PCCL2 is dropping in amounts.
• The comment that waste receipts have decreased over the last decade across the region attribute the economic climate and sustainability efforts and states only a marginal impact from recycling. This report and other documents for the Landfill Committee meetings are posted on the City of Peoria website.

The Peoria City/County Municipal Landfill Committee (Solid Waste Committee) met the third Wednesday, May 15th at 3 p.m. at City Hall. Items of note included that the Foth Engineering budget was slightly over expected expenditures because of the unexpected previous month IEPA Bureau of Air inspection and documents request.    
   For April, 10,000 gallons of landfill leachate were transported off-site (to the Greater Peoria Sanitary District)
for treatment and discharge.
​   Newly installed solar powered sump pumps are running and are expected to help pull off more landfill leachate.  
   Work is also proceeding for installation of a new gas flare control system which will improve management of the landfill off-gassing.
   Landfill waste receipts were again down for the previous month. Year 2019 shows 49,493.97 tons received through April compared to 53,064.63 in 2018. 
Joyce Blumenshine, Observer

The Peoria City County Landfill Committee met on April 17th, its regular third Wednesday of the month at 
3 p.m. in Room 404 of Peoria City Hall. Committee member Rick Fox was requested to lead the meeting
by Chairman Steve Morris, who could not attend.  
​  County Sustainability staff member Karen Raithel announced  several E-waste and other collection events and April Earth Day/Month promotions, which are posted on the County website.
   The Foth Engineering report included that the 2018 Landfill #1 annual report was being completed and approval was requested for signature when done as this landfill is under the responsibility of the City/County for ongoing maintenance and monitoring.
  PDC has already completed their report for what will be Landfill #3, which they will operate when completed.
  The Illinois EPA Bureau of Air made a site visit to Landfill #2, the current operating landfill, which is run by Waste
Management (WM). The last IEPA air inspection was in 2016.
  Work continues to repair landfill gas flares that were impacted by the extreme winter weather. Foth and WM are submitting a joint report. WM noted that the amount of garbage for the previous month is again down. There was discussion that the budget for the year may need to be adjusted if this downward trend continues. Committee Member Pat Nichting asked if this could be due to the City of Peoria going to twice a month recycling pick-ups. Comment was that it could be a slight impact. Mr. Nichting said industry news shows landfill receipts are down 5% but Peoria is seeing a 15% drop and he asked for a report at the next meeting to better monitor the decline so the
Committee can discuss what can be done. One comment was waste haulers may be going to other locations.
    There was discussion of an offer from an adjacent landowner to sell property to the landfill among several
other items.
   Solar energy was still listed on the agenda, however there has been no action or updates. 
Joyce Blumenshine, Observer

The Peoria City County Landfill Committee met at their regular time, 3 p.m. on the third
Wednesday, February 20th, at City Hall room 404. Chairman Steve Morris presided.
  The Foth Engineering Report included information for rehabbing the landfill gas flare station. Discussion
covered if the gas could be collected and put to use instead of being flared, but the concern was raised about lack of enough gas to make that economical for the present. There is interest in looking at what can be done in five to ten years.   
  Chris Coulter, PDC, reported that 4,000 households have been added to Peoria recycling pick-up since the bi-weekly pick-up with no cost up front for a toter have begun and there are now 14,000 households participating. 

​The Peoria City County Landfill Committee met January 16th, 3 pm at Peoria City Hall room 404 with Chairman
Steve Morris presiding.
  Karen Raithel, Peoria County Sustainability and Resource Conservation Director announced that recycling drop-off locations at the Northpoint Shopping Center off of Knoxville Avenue and at Sterling Bazaar off of Sterling Avenue would soon be closed and that Peoria residents should use their city-wide option of curbside recycling pick-ups.
   The first part of the Foth Engineering report covered continued monitoring of pollutants. Repeated incidences of acetone were decided to be false positives from contamination in lab testing and not actually showing high landfill levels. 

5/16/2018: The Peoria City County Landfill Committee met their usual third Wednesday, May 16, at 3 pm, in Room 404 at Peoria City Hall.
  Public comment included a request for explanation of some of the chemicals showing up in groundwater monitoring and how some are determined not to be not site related and others have continued testing.
  Committee Chair Steve Morris asked that Foth engineering address the questions during their Groundwater Update report. Some test wells are affected by migrating landfill gasses. Other things that happen are contaminants that are from the coal mining done at the site before it became a landfill or testing at the lab. If a level of concern is detected, there is a time-frame for follow-up testing, which often shows no further action is needed. If levels remain of concern, the next step is a determination of the source and assessment monitoring is done. The testing looks for a statistically significant change as they want to know if the landfill is affecting groundwater.
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