Engineer outlines decommissioning plan and $24–25 million conservative estimate

Aaron Anderson, a licensed professional engineer who said he signed and sealed the applicant’s decommissioning plan, told the Peoria County Zoning Board of Appeals the study models removal of all above‑grade infrastructure and foundations to a depth of at least 5 feet below grade, consistent with guidance from the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

"All of the roads, we've got roughly 40 miles of access road, 16 feet wide and 9 inches thick of crushed rock material. All of those are removed," Anderson said as he described the work the plan would require. He testified the model aggregates labor, equipment, hauling and disposal costs, and intentionally excluded salvage credits for steel, copper and aluminum to produce a conservative, "gross" cost estimate.

Anderson said the model produced gross deconstruction costs "in the ballpark of 19 to 20,000,000. We then, there at the bottom, add owner indirects of 5% ... and then another 20% on top of that a contingency," bringing the presented total to roughly $24–25 million. He told the board the applicant has committed to put financial assurance in place at building permit that reflects the ultimately agreed decommissioning cost, and that the county may require third‑party review of the plan at permit stage.

Why it matters: The board must weigh whether the presented security and plan meet Peoria County ordinance requirements and the Agricultural Impact Mitigation Agreement (AIMA) minimums, and whether the assumptions are sufficiently transparent for county review. The hearing recessed for lunch after questions about tonnages and indexing.

The report and testimony: Anderson said his firm used RSMeans cost indices indexed to Peoria, Illinois, assumed no salvage credits, and allowed for recycling options (which he said could be cheaper in some scenarios) but deliberately used the higher disposal cost in the study to be conservative. The testimony also acknowledged the ultimate decommissioning assurance and final engineering details would be finalized and reviewed at permitting.