Freeport revisits Walnut Avenue lift station as residents challenge use of Lamb Road TIF funds

Freeport’s Committee of the Whole spent much of its July 14 meeting discussing a proposed lift station at Walnut Avenue intended to bypass an inverted sewer line running through the city landfill and protect heavy industrial flows from the Lamb Road district. Public works presenter Darren Stiekel told the council the existing gravity sewer that carries Lamb Road industrial wastewater runs through older landfill cells that have settled and now invert, trapping flow. He said the proposed pump station would collect flows from the district — including large users such as Snack King — and push them via a 16‑inch force main about 4,000 feet under the river to an existing manhole and the city interceptor. "Some of our heaviest industrial flows are from the Lamb Road District. A matter of fact, Snack King is our largest industrial user," Stiekel said, adding Snack King contributes "about a 140,000 gallons a day." He described the proposed station as having 100‑horsepower pumps…