City hosts tours of waste station amid smell, noise concerns

In an effort to increase transparency, Councilmembers Bobby Burns (5th Ward) and Krissie Harris (2nd) have hosted two tours of the WM waste transfer station at 1711 Church St. over the past month, but neighbors say they are still unsatisfied. 

The transfer station has operated a few blocks east of Evanston Township High School and across from Mason Park for decades, first opening in the 1970s. Since then, residents of the Fifth and Second wards have complained about noise from hauling trucks and the smell of “municipal solid waste” — or garbage from businesses and city facilities. 

Since 2017, the city has collected a tonnage fee on all garbage brought into the station. An operator weighs each truck and submits information and payments to the city on a quarterly basis. So far, the city has received a half million dollars through the agreement, the RoundTable previously reported.

During a tour on Friday, Sept. 25, Burns said he’s looking into more ways to address the noise and smell, but still needs to do more research. 

Harris said these tours were meant to give neighbors a chance to see what really goes on at the facility. 

“There is this cloud of mystery, and these things are happening in a vacuum,” she said. “Opening it up to residents … allowed people who were interested the opportunity to see how it works, ask the questions and potentially have them addressed.”  

Over the last few decades, the city has maintained the legality of this transfer station. In 1987, despite the Illinois General Assembly’s ruling prohibiting waste stations within 1,000 feet of a residential area, the facility was grandfathered in and allowed to stay. 

The City Council approved the siting of the transfer station at 1711 Church St., the RoundTable also previously reported.

“We have a waste transfer station in our community,” Harris said. “The city had a chance to get rid of it, but now it’s one of those solidified things that it’s going to cost us a lot of money to get rid of, and I don’t know that we can beat the state because we agreed to it.” 

Harris added that it’s an “awful thing that it’s there,” but because the city does not have the funding or right to remove the station, she wants to continue to discuss the issues publicly to create a better relationship between neighbors and the facility. 

“If it was that easy, it would be gone,” she said. “But it’s not, so how do we live in harmony with the best that we have? Do we at some point create state legislation that then gets it out? But locally somewhere, we blew it.” 

Waste Management, the current transfer station operator, has made several attempts to address these issues, adding a spraying system that mists the inside of the station with a mixture of water and odor masking chemicals and planting trees as a barrier. 

Lisa Disbrow, WM public affairs manager, said the company “strives to be a good neighbor with our day-to-day operations at the Evanston Transfer Station, which includes an open and transparent dialogue with our neighbors to address concerns.” 

“We stay in communication with our neighbors and work to address concerns raised by neighboring residents,” she said in an email. 

Two neighbors who attended Friday’s tour said they want to see more done to mitigate the noise and smell if there’s no opportunity to get rid of the facility. 

Volha Nepap, whose home is right next to the station and only separated by a berm, said she does not believe anything will be actually done to address the problems. She moved to Evanston four years ago and did not know about the facility before buying her home. 

“Honestly, I have doubts that they’re actually gonna do all of these things. It’s been constant noise and smell,” she said. “I changed the windows to try to make it less noisy, but I can still hear them beeping and banging. I’m not happy.” 

Another neighbor, Natalie Baranchan, also said efforts to minimize the smell and noise are not fixing the core issue of the station being located within a residential area. 

“I do appreciate the green at the berm because it makes it just a little easier to live here,” Baranchan said. “Anything that could be done to improve the quality of life of people that live here should be done, and we welcome that. If this is the short-term thing that we could do, yes, let’s do it because it will make our day-to-day a little better. However, it’s not solving the issue.” 

Baranchan, who attended the Friday tour, moved to Evanston from Chicago in 2020. She said she’s smelled garbage from her bedroom every day since then. 

“Whoever was in charge of the city made a decision in the ’80s that I have to live with the consequence of,” she said. “I understand that’s how public policy works, and decisions that we’re making now will impact people living here 30 years from now, but it was a wrong decision, so somebody has to have courage to actually step in and try to fix it for everybody.” 

Since moving to Evanston, Baranchan said she has filed several complaints against the facility, which the city has said it investigated.

“It just feels like we’re complaining,” she said. “The city is accepting the complaint and then closing the complaint, and it just feels like we’re all engaged in this performance, but there is no tangible result.” 

Because of these concerns, the city has created a hub for public information on the transfer station. This page serves as the central point for all city communication and updates on conversations and decisions regarding the station.

Evanston encourages residents to report issues with the station to 311 and submit a complaint. Submitting 311 requests allows the city to track the frequency, nature and type of complaints associated with the facility. Residents can also speak to a representative of the station by calling 224-212-9339.

“With the product that they have, they’re doing the best that they can,” Harris said. “We need to stay on top of them. When I get complaint calls, I’m calling them [WM]. We’re doing spot inspections. We’re having these discussions. We’re seeing what other things can they do? So we just keep pushing that envelope until garbage isn’t a thing, but garbage is always going to be a thing, unfortunately.”