Town residents gather to speak out in opposition
The sign still says “B.R. Amon & Sons Potter Road Pit,” and an estimated 50,000 tons of roof shingles are still piled up at W4186 Potter Road in the town of Lafayette.
But the Amon gravel pit and shingle recycling business went bankrupt several years ago.
If county officials approve a conditional use permit on June 19, Reliable Materials Corporation of Illinois, a property holding company, plans to purchase a portion of the property. Southwind RAS, LLC, would then operate an asphalt shingle recycling business at the location.
With petitions circulating around Lafayette and Elkhorn, residents are concerned about the noise, pollution and traffic the business would bring to the area.
“We’ve lived with this long enough,” said Lafayette resident Carol Blackbourn. “The question is: Do you really want to turn this into an industrial park in the middle of a residential area?”
Lafayette’s plan commission and town board both approved the conditional use permit in May. County approval is required to finalize the permit, which would allow an asphalt shingle recycling facility as long as it continues to actively mine the property.
“Our 15-year plan is to mine small amounts of aggregate material, stone material, during the life of the operation. That we will blend into or with our shingle product and make it into a final product that will be shipped out,” said Brian Lansu, president of Reliable Materials Corporation of Illinois and attorney for Southwind RAS, LLC.
The county restricted the Amon business to allow no more than 40,000 tons of material on site a year. Southwind’s approval through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) limits that amount to no more than 10,000 tons on site at any one time, Lansu said.
“So it is significantly less than what was previously allowed on site, and obviously significantly less than what is on site right now. We were given two years to basically process the pile that exists and get that off site, and then the lower volume amount goes into effect,” Lansu said.
Apparently shingles are not the only thing the Amon Company left behind.
Ron Carlson, receiver of the property, reported a spill of prime, which is used in making asphalt, to the Walworth County Sheriff’s Office on June 3. The oil drained out of a large storage tank and filled a retention pond, Sheriff David Graves said.
An environmental contractor was scheduled to be at the site on June 10 to clean up a spill of approximately 150 gallons of a petroleum asphalt substance, said DNR Spills Coordinator Scott Ferguson.
Southwind RAS, LLC
Southwind RAS has been in business since 2010, when Illinois first allowed shingles to be taken out of landfills and recycled for use in hot-mix asphalt for paving projects, Lansu said. The company operates 20 facilities across Illinois, southern Wisconsin and eastern Missouri.
Southwind has processed approximately 150,000 tons of shingles through those 20 facilities per year, Lansu said. It is the largest volume recycler of asphalt shingles in the country, Lansu said.
“Over the last couple of years the demand for the material has actually exceeded the amount of inbound material that we have been able to collect in Illinois,” Lansu said.
So the company is looking to Lafayette to fill that void.
“There is obviously a significant shingle pile that was left by the previous owners and operators. We are looking to come in and process that material and sell some of the processed material locally for pavement projects, but the bulk of the material will be processed and sold back into Illinois to satisfy the demand for asphalt roofing shingles in Illinois,” Lansu said.
Lansu does not foresee the company having a large stockpile like the one that now exists.
Truck traffic
Residents are concerned with truck traffic, which can wreak havoc on the roads.
“It is a huge issue in the springtime with the towns getting the roads busted up by heavy trucks,” Graves said.
To address that issue, Southwind will enter into a road agreement with Lafayette if the conditional use is approved. Based on the annual amount of product that is sold out of the facility, Southwind will contribute an amount toward the town’s road fund for the town, Lansu said.
In addition, the company will agree to repair any road damages that are a direct result of the recycling operation, Lansu said.
Truck volume is expected to be considerably less than when B.R. Amon was in business because the Amon company conducted three operations out of the facility: an asphalt shingle operation, asphalt plant operation, and aggregates sale operation, Lansu said. Southwind will only be recycling shingles.
Still, it is important for trucks to abide by road weight limits, said Deputy Sheriff Neil Trombley, who specializes in truck weights and measures.
“If they are going to open it up, I encourage them to get their own scales put in, weigh themselves in and out, make sure their loads are covered, and make sure they are not losing loads as they are leaving the pit,” Trombley said.
Recycling shingles
“This is really a great recycling opportunity for our responsible operators to take in these roofing shingles. They give out petroleum, a finite resource. Rather than burying all that stuff in a landfill to recycle it into asphalt is just a great idea,” said John Budzinski, acting supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource’s waste and materials management.
Recycling shingles reduces the amount of oil, sand and fiber that are needed to make a hot-asphalt mix, Lansu said. This reduces the dependence on foreign oil and decreases the cost of paving roads, he said.
“The cost reduction, because the cost of a barrel of oil versus the cost of a ton of asphalt roofing shingles, is dramatically different. It is about a 10-to-one cost savings, on the cost of shingles versus the cost of virgin oil,” Lansu said.
That translates into a cheaper product, the asphalt mix, he said. The state or local agency using the material saves money, which means a saving for taxpayers, Lansu said.
However, roof shingle recycling must be done properly, Budzinski said.
“There are some rules and regulations, requirements that people have to follow in order to do it. We at the DNR are trying very much to promote responsible recycling of these materials,” Budzinski said.
