The Illinois Supreme Court has delayed the decision on whether to expand the Cortland Township landfill.

If expanded, the landfill, located on Route 88 in Cortland Township, will be the waste removal option for 17 counties in the Northern Illinois area. Other counties would pay to deposit their municipal waste in the landfill. The proposed expansion will take in about two tons of municipal waste per day. The money that would be earned from the expanded landfill already has a purpose, to fund the $27 million project to expand the DeKalb county jail. According to DeKalb County Sheriff Roger Scott, expansion of the jail is essential for the county.

The jail has 89 beds for inmates; the average total of inmates in 2012 was 138. Scott said some inmates have to be jailed in other counties, primarily in Boone and Kendall counties, at the expense of DeKalb County taxpayers.

“Right now we spend over a million dollars a year outside the county housing inmates,” Scott said. “That amount will only go up as inmate population continues to increase.”

The county jail has been reported to be overcrowded since the National Institute of Corrections visited in 1990. Two sales tax referendums designed to cover the cost of the expansion failed to pass in 2004 and in 2006. Scott said if the landfill expansion project passes through the Illinois Supreme Court, taxpayers will not have to cover the cost of the jail expansion. Scott said that the landfill expansion project is the only hope to fund the $27 million that is needed to expand the jail

“The expansion will give us the ability to deal with proper housing of the wide variety of inmates we have to deal with on a daily basis, such as those with serious mental health issues which is an ever increasing population, those inmates with substance abuse issues, very violent inmates, and many other issues,” Scott said.

The reason the landfill expansion has been halted is due to Dan Kenney and the organization Stop the DeKalb County Mega-Dump’s appeal to the Supreme Court.

“Research shows that landfills are going to be obsolete in a few years, probably a decade or sooner, as more and more companies including Waste Management Incorporated are putting more money into waste energy plants, that’s where you take solid municipal waste and turn it into bio-fuels or generate electricity with it and other types of things,” said Kenney, organizer of Stop the DeKalb County Mega-Dump. “What they’re proposing here is one of the last regional landfills in Northern Illinois, as they will be putting in garbage from 17 different counties which will leave a lasting impact on our environment here in our county for a number of years.”

Kenney believes the delayed decision by the Illinois Supreme Court is helping the organization’s cause.

The Cortland Township Electors Association, a group of registered voters in Cortland Township, are pursuing a way to stop the landfill expansion through a township law that gives them the right to refuse garbage.

“The electors may prevent the deposit of night soil, garbage or other offensive substances within the limits of the township. This section does apply to refuse disposal facilities regulated by the Illinois Department of Public Health and the county in which the facilities are located,” according to the Illinois Compiled Statutes Code 60 ILCS 1/30-120: Garbage.

Frankie Benson, Cortland Township resident, has concerns with the landfill expansion.

“Waste Management really hasn’t shown that they can really contain all the pollution and dust and all the other things that come with bringing in that kind of garbage,” Benson said. “On a personal level, I’m worried about my health. We want to retire in our home, but if the dust is such that we can’t go out, or the smell, the smell right now from the current landfill, and we’re about a mile away from it, in the summer it can be incredibly bad here.”

Bill Plunkett, Illinois Waste Management media spokesperson, said the citizens of DeKalb County have nothing to worry about.

“Waste Management has operated with DeKalb County landfill for many years and the facility is a well-run, well-managed, environmentally protective site,” Plunkett said. “The company has invested in gas recovery systems that control odor, it complies with all of the regulations associated with landfill operations. It’s a good site, it’s an asset to the community, and the expansion will enable DeKalb [County] to ensure that it can provide for the waste disposal needs of its industry and residents for years to come.”

The Illinois Supreme Court has delayed their decision of the Cortland Township landfill expansion until May.