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Politics & Government

Village Board Expected to OK Recycling Facility

Village trustees will meet at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Village Hall.

Village trustees are expected to approve plans for a recycling facility along Route 31 in Lake in the Hills during a meeting Thursday night. 

The Village Board will meet at 7:30 p.m. at , 600 Harvest Gate. The Village Board is expected to approve a motion to authorize staff to negotiate an annexation agreement with the applicant for the asphalt shingle-recycling facility, Bartlett-based Southwind RAS.

The company plans to build the recycling plant on 19 acres of land at 8813 Route 31. from the village of Cary during a meeting in May, according to a Northwest Herald article.

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Cary opposes the facility, fearing asphalt could pollute local water supplies.

At a Committee of a Whole meeting in Lake in the Hills on Tuesday, Rich Guerard, the attorney representing Southwind RAS, called the proposed plant “very green and very clean.”

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December Planning & Zoning Commission Meeting

In December, members of Lake in the Hills Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously endorsed the plan for the asphalt recycling facility, despite objections from a handful of Cary residents.

Guerard told the commission during the meeting that if approved by the Village Board, about 10 trucks a day would drop off asphalt shingles salvaged from single-family homes.

The operation would be open 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Shingles would not be stored on the site longer than 18 months. The shingles would be ground into a black, sand-like substance and used as a road-pavement additive.

Any asbestos found on the site would be quarantined and sent to a landfill.

In a letter to the planning and zoning commission, Cary Mayor Tom Kierna said the asphalt shingles contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a byproduct of petroleum, which could get into the village of Cary’s water supply.

officials say the groundwater is just 30 feet below the surface and they worry about a nearby well at 600 N. Fox Trails Drive.

Gregory W. Wilcox, a consultant with Winston Engineering, which was hired by Southwind to address environmental issues, told the Planning and Zoning Commission during the December meeting there would not be a problem with asphalt getting into the water supply. 

“Intuitively, you think water will dissolve everything,” Wilcox said. “But asphalt does not dissolve like that or leach into the soil. If it did, then problems would be widespread. Everybody has asphalt shingles on top of their houses.”

Amie Schaenzer contributed to this article.

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