Lockport Township Barge Terminal Permits Win Third County Extension

Will County Board | September 17, 2026

Article Summary: The Will County Board on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, approved a third extension of three special use permits tied to a proposed crude oil pipeline and petroleum barge terminal on Metropolitan Water Reclamation District land at 18500 9th St. in Romeoville, passing the measure with 18 votes in the affirmative and no discussion.

Ducere / MWRD Extension Key Points:

• Resolution 26-279 / 26-5313 (SEXT-26-020) grants a third 180-day extension of three special use permits for manufacturing and industrial services, general, each carrying five conditions, issued under zoning case ZC-23-023 — valid through Jan. 10, 2027.
• The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is the owner of record; Ducere LLC, with Dave Nelson listed as 100% owner, is the applicant. The Land Use & Development Committee recommended approval 6-1.
• Packet documents describe a proposed 30-inch crude oil pipeline and barge terminal requiring dredging in the Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal, on land between the canal and the Des Plaines River upstream of Lockport Prairie Nature Preserve.
• County staff attribute the delay to permitting required from outside agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and two Illinois EPA bureaus.

WILL COUNTY — The largest industrial project on the Will County Board’s land use agenda Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, passed in under a minute.

Member Sherry Newquist read Resolution 26-279 / 26-5313 into the record and moved it; Member Kelly Hickey seconded. County Executive Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant asked for discussion; none was offered. The board approved the third extension with 18 votes in the affirmative, with the executive noting that some votes had been missed in the roll call.

An Aug. 10, 2026, memo to the Land Use & Development Committee from Brian Radner, the county’s development services director, lays out the timeline. The County Board approved the three special use permits for manufacturing and industrial services, general, on July 19, 2023. The applicant applied for a site development permit, SDP-23-PIP012, on May 10, 2023. The first extension request, SEXT-25-009, was filed May 28, 2025, and pushed the permits’ effective period to Jan. 15, 2026. A second request, SEXT-26-009, was submitted Feb. 25, 2026, and approved by the board at its May 21, 2026, meeting as Resolution 26-152, on an 18-2 vote, running 180 days or until July 14, 2026. The third request was submitted June 30, 2026, and runs through Jan. 10, 2027.

“The development of the property has been held up due to required permitting from outside agencies,” Radner wrote.

Under Section 155-16.40(J)(2) of the Will County Zoning Ordinance, the board may extend a special use permit’s expiration for good cause on up to four separate occasions, by up to 180 days each.

What Is Proposed

The underlying project is described in the 2023 staff report as the construction and operation of a petroleum products terminal connecting pipeline to barge transportation, classified under the county’s zoning ordinance as manufacturing and industrial services, general. The report says petroleum products will be transferred from pipelines to barges and moved to refineries in the region and beyond, and that the applicant has been working for years to obtain permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Illinois EPA Bureau of Water and the Illinois EPA Bureau of Air.

A series of Illinois Department of Natural Resources letters in the packet describes the project in more detail. In letters dated June 19, 2020, and Jan. 18, 2023, the department wrote that “Ducere LLC proposes to construct a new 30-inch crude oil pipeline and barge terminal in unincorporated Will County and the City of Lockport,” including dredging in the canal to accommodate barges for loading, with three new and three existing cells used for barge mooring. The pipeline would be directionally drilled beneath the canal and Deep Run Creek, bored beneath the BNSF railroad, trenched through the Illinois and Michigan Canal and directionally drilled beneath Fiddyment Creek.

The 2023 letter, signed by Bradley Hayes, manager of the Impact Assessment Section, concluded that impacts to protected resources are unlikely if its recommendations are adopted. Those recommendations include educating all on-site personnel about the state-endangered Blanding’s turtle and spotted turtle, daily inspection of trenches for trapped wildlife, and no clearing of trees three inches or larger in diameter at breast height between April 1 and Oct. 31 to protect the northern long-eared bat and Indiana bat. The applicant proposes to clear three acres of brush and woodland.

The letter also flags the project’s position upstream of Lockport Prairie Nature Preserve, which supports critical habitat for the Hine’s emerald dragonfly. “The dolomite prairie habitat found at LPNP is critically rare with only approximately 45 acres remaining in Illinois,” the department wrote. It noted that the applicant provided a hydraulic study addressing a theoretical petroleum release from the facility, that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requested a third-party expert review of that study, and that the department concurs in the need for an oil spill prevention control and countermeasure plan acceptable to the service, the department and the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission. A note in the 2020 letter records that the portion of the I&M Canal involved is owned by the department and that a license agreement between Ducere and the department was executed Dec. 30, 2015, to allow trenching of the pipeline through the canal.

A Will-South Cook Soil and Water Conservation District Natural Resource Information report prepared for Ducere LLC and stamped received by Will County Land Use on March 31, 2023, records existing zoning of A-1 and I-1, a proposed use of “Manufacturing & Industrial Services – Barge loading & Unloading,” an individual well and septic system, and a Land Evaluation and Site Assessment score of 76.27 out of 300, placing the site in the district’s lowest band, “Potential Growth and Incorporated Areas.” The district concluded that “the proposed change is compatible with the surrounding area and land uses” and that soils on the parcels are “considered Not Prime for Farmland,” while noting floodplain, floodway and a freshwater forested and shrub wetland on the parcels, and warning of moderate to high frost action potential affecting building foundations, road base and shallow excavations.

The 2023 staff report describes operations planned both north and south of the 9th Street Bridge, with the southern portion used to “fleet” — park — unloaded barges, and notes scuttled barges in that area that will need to be removed. The applicant indicated it would demolish existing agricultural grain terminal structures on the north side of the bridge and may demolish structures to the south.

The 2023 approval included a map amendment from A-1 to I-1 for part of one parcel, the three special use permits and 14 variances for setbacks and fence heights. Staff findings note that federal regulations require specific security measures at such facilities, supporting the higher fence heights, and that the property is bordered by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to the east and the Des Plaines River to the west, with other industrial uses to the north and west. The original 2023 board vote on the zoning case was 15 to 4, according to the signed ordinance in the packet.

Each of the three special use permits carries the same five conditions: conformance with all Illinois Department of Natural Resources requirements; fully shielded lighting fixtures emitting no light upward; use of only “warm-white” or filtered LEDs with a correlated color temperature under 3,000 K and an S/P ratio under 1.2 to minimize blue emission; use of the minimum lighting required by law; and use of wildlife-friendly, plastic-free erosion control blankets near wetlands and adjacent to natural areas during construction.