The present land fill will grow from 88 acres to over 500 acres stretching for two and one half miles along the south side of I-88.
    The landfill currently takes in 272 tons of garbage per day, if the expansion is approved it will take in 2,000 tons of trash per day.
    Garbage will be trucked into DeKalb County from 17 northeast Illinois counties including Cook County. If it were to be expanded for the needs of our county it would have a capacity for many generations. If the proposal is approved the landfill will reach capacity in approximately 40 years. Also Waste Management has only guaranteed DeKalb County 25 years of use to be re-negotiated in 25 years.
    The expansion will lead to an additional 240 truck loads of garbage coming into our county daily. One hundred of those trucks will be large transfer trailers. This is an increase of 480 trips daily or about one every five minutes.

      The current landfill is leaking. Waste Management makes no guarantee that the expanded landfill area will not also leak at some time in the future.
      Waste Management is a $13 billion multi-national corporation that has a very dark history of not operating landfills properly. Waste Management has had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, penalties, and court settlements related to improper and dangerous practices. One example out of hundreds
      is a court case where Waste Management had to pay over $5 million dollars to settle a fraud case that involved the company falsifying water quality reports.
      There is a large amount of documentation nationwide to draw a direct correlation between landfills and health problems.
      Landfills release over 10 toxic gases into the air. Among them hydrogen sulfide, which causes a rotten egg smell. It is a broad spectrum poison which can affect many parts of the body especially the nervous system.
      The DeKalb landfill has already had at least one hydrogen sulfide leak that citizens were not told about at the time it was occurring.
          The USGS released a new earthquake impact report following the recent earthquake outside of Elburn that indicates the landfill is in an impact zone but Waste Management has made no plan for any such event.

        We must ask ourselves are the citizens of this county and the county board members really so desperate to expand the courthouse and the jail that we are willing to risk the well being and safety of our children now and the future generations? Let’s work together to create a new plan. Let’s make a commitment to our children and all the children to come that we will be good stewards of the priceless land, air, and water of our county.

        Please get involved and speak up before it is too late.

        Contact your county board and tell them if they vote yes on this expansion, in November, you will VOTE NO!!!