LRS reportedly defers Illinois barge plan

LRS reportedly has set aside plans to ship municipal solid waste (MSW) via barges on the inland waterway network of Illinois, an early-March report indicates.

An Chicago Public Media report credited to a Chicago Sun-Times staff member says Rosemont, Illinois-based waste and recycling company LRS wrote to several opponents of the plan saying it decided to “pause” the project.

The same report indicates the project has been in the planning stages since at least 2021. An LRS presentation cited by Brett Chase of the Sun-Times says LRS pointed to energy- and emissions-saving benefits to the plan.

The waste firm says the reduction in fuel using barges would reduce CO₂ emissions by an estimated 11,000 tons annually. LRS Manager of Sustainability and Training Joy Rifkin also is quoted as saying the project represented “an opportunity to reduce truck traffic, greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.”

The LRS plan entails loading MSW into barges in a Chicago neighborhood for shipment some 100 miles via the inland waterway system to Henry, Illinois, in Marshall County, southwest of Chicago. From there, the MSW would travel another 50 miles by truck to the LRS Atkinson Landfill in Henry County, Illinois.

According to Chicago Public Media, opposition arose in the Chicago neighborhood of Little Village where the barge loading would have occurred. Opponents cited wind-blown trash and the potential stirring up of toxic materials in Chicago waterways as concerns.

One of the waterways, known as the Collateral Channel, has been identified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a candidate to be placed on the EPA Superfund cleanup list.

While the letter seen by Chase from Rifkin of LRS to project opponents refers to the project as being “paused,” the reporter comments that EPA consideration and study of a new Superfund site typically is a multiyear process.