The third and final government body needed to approve a new construction agreement for Peoria County’s Landfill Three gave the go-ahead Wednesday night.
The Peoria City/County Landfill Committee voted 6 to 1 to approve the new agreement between the committee, Peoria County Board, City of Peoria and GFL Environmental.
Committee member Rick Fox was the lone dissenting vote.
Under the terms of the new agreement, GFL Environmental will build a transfer station in Pottstown, expected in early 2026. However, county board member and committee liaison Sharon Williams says Landfill Two is expected to be at capacity by late 2024 or early 2025.
“So the garbage will be going to Indian Creek [Landfill, outside Hopedale,]” Williams said. “I believe that’s where they’re going to send it, but yeah, so we do have a plan in place.”
Meetings will start in three years to discuss construction plans, with construction starting approximately eight years from now and the new landfill completed by Jan. 1, 2035.
The agreement is the result of a long and arduous process, including concerns about a possible mine shaft, interactions with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Agencies and, at one point, possible legal action.
“I really feel like we needed to reset the relationship,” Williams said. "Obviously, attorneys were involved and it was looking like there could be a potential litigation and we didn’t want that. So we needed to sit, sit down and really talk about how this could benefit the county, the city and all of our residents.”
Some of the benefits mentioned by Williams and other county and city officials include special rates for residents in unincorporated parts of Peoria County, an estimated $1.5 million in annual savings for the cities and agreements for payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars from GFL to help fund the county’s sustainability and landfill departments.
Williams says the agreement is expected to be finished and in effect by Jan. 1, 2025.