Du Quoin asks residents to weigh in on leachate odor
Du Quoin's leadership is debating whether to continue to process the water runoff from the Perry Ridge Landfill, given the powerful odor the leachate gave off last year.
The city also is mulling whether to continue to send sludge (human waste) to the landfill, now that Perry Ridge will charge $26 a ton for what the city says used to be a free service.
The landfill's president, however, says it was never a "free" service.
Leachate is rainwater that falls on the landfill and then drains into pits. The Environmental Protection Agency orders that all leachate be processed through a wastewater treatment facility, to eliminate the impurities before the water is discharged back into nature.
The leachate at Perry Ridge gets trucked to the Du Quoin treatment plant. Last year's powerful odor came from the trucks that carried the liquid as well as the lagoon at the plant, where the leachate is collected before being processed.
The reason last year's leachate was so smelly is because there was so much rain, Mayor Guy Alongi said. He said he and Commissioner Chuck Genesio would like to hear from residents before they sign another agreement with Perry Ridge. Genesio is the board's commissioner of public property.
"We don't think it (the prolonged stench) will happen again, but there's no guarantee," Alongi said at last week's city council meeting. "We don't know if the community has the belly to withstand that again."
The city has prepared an ordinance authorizing a leachate disposal agreement with Perry Ridge Landfill, but it is presently on hold.
The landfill pays the city 3 cents per gallon of leachate, or $30,000 for 1 million gallons. In a normal year the city gets 1.2 million to 1.3 million gallons, worth about $36,000, Alongi said, but the city got closer to $50,000 last year because of the amount of rain.
Meanwhile, the city also has to decide what to do with the sludge (human waste) that comes of the wastewater treatment plant, now that the Perry Ridge Landfill will charge $26 per ton to receive it.
Alongi said the city produces an average of 660 tons of sludge per year, which would amount to $17,160 per year. He said it costs another $3,000-$4,000 a year to transport it to the landfill.
Perry Ridge Landfill President John Siemsen said Monday the move by the company to separate the sludge and leachate processes into two agreements is an accounting decision and not about charging Du Quoin money.
"In separating them we were not intending on changing the economics of the situation," Siemsen said.
The prior contract between Du Quoin and Perry Ridge provided for the landfill taking 600 tons of sludge a year from Du Quoin at no charge, but Siemsen said it has been essentially a wash because the city is taking the landfill's leachate.
"It wasn't 'free,'" Siemsen said of the sludge. "We would never offer free disposal."
Had they not taken the city's sludge at no charge then probably the landfill would have paid Du Quoin less to take the leachate, he said.
Siemsen said Perry Ridge chose to "decouple" the two agreements to be able to state clearly what both sets of costs really are.
"We just thought it was fairer and clearer to make two separate agreements," he added.
Alongi, however, said the city is not happy with the numbers. He said they are hoping to either bring the sludge cost down, find revenue-neutral places to put the sludge, or even find a buyer for it.
At the very least, Alongi said, "We need to find a place to get rid of it where we don't need to pay." He said the city can hold onto the sludge for two or three months before it becomes critical to find a place for it.
The sludge has been treated and does not stink, he added.
Perry Ridge Landfill opened in March 2004.