[OccupyCU] Clinton landfill news from Aquifer Watch CU -- [AWCU-List] recent developments & USEPA meeting

Wed Jan 23 21:00:51 UTC 2013

Very interesting news about the Clinton Landfill legal process.

Two highlights:

   * Section (2) -- about the site already being used for some non-PCB 
toxic wastes, by secret agreement with the DeWitt county board, and with 
no public notice?   The "MGP" manufactured gas production waste they 
mention is exactly what's been at 5th & Hill in Champaign.   There are a 
number of such sites around the state.  Maybe some of our very own 
5th&Hill sludge got deposited in Clinton.

   * Jan 30th USEPA informational meeting -- not a public intake 
hearing, but should be interesting.
       Reservations required (details below).  1-3PM, Champaign Council 
chambers.

       They mention that a formal public hearing *will* be happening, 
some time in the next few months, and that people willing to testify 
formally would be welcome.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[AWCU-List] recent developments & USEPA meeting
Date: 	Wed, 23 Jan 2013 14:25:11 -0600
From: 	Aquifer Watch CU <aquiferwatchcu at gmail.com>
Reply-To: 	awcu-list at googlegroups.com
To: 	AWCU-list at googlegroups.com

To all of you who have expressed concern about the contamination threat 
to our drinking water from the toxic waste landfill at Clinton:

You probably saw several newspaper articles this fall about initiatives 
local governments and concerned citizens are taking to stop the dumping 
of toxic waste into the 22-acre landfill above the Mahomet 
Aquifer.However, unless you’ve been following the stories very 
carefully, it’s easy to get confused by the variety of legal maneuvers 
and lose sight of where we actually are in the effort to stop the 
landfill company’s activity.

So for those of you who are interested, I thought I would try to distill 
recent developments into capsule form (or at least as capsular as I can 
make them):

*1*.*Cities and counties are preparing a lawsuit against USEPA if the 
PCB permit is granted*

A coalition of city and county governments in central Illinois has 
formally committed to suing the US Environmental Protection Agency if it 
grants the permit to Area Disposal, Inc. to dump PCB’s at Clinton.Two 
attorneys with long experience in environmental law have been retained 
and are currently advising the intergovernmental coalition.

*2*. *The* *coalition is filing a suit to declare the dumping of other 
toxic chemicals /already/ underway at Clinton as unlawful*

Many of you may not know that Area Disposal’s original plan for Clinton 
(though not publicly known at the time) was not only to make it a major 
dumping ground for PCB waste from superfund cleanup sites around the 
country, but to make it the designated burial site for many other highly 
toxic chemicals that are too dangerous to be put into ordinary city 
landfills.The worst of these, manufactured gas production waste (MGP), 
is a mixture of hydrocarbons and other hazardous compounds, many of 
which have long been identified as potent carcinogens.Some experts think 
these chemicals may pose a greater threat to our water than PCBs since 
many are solvents and can accelerate leakage through plastic liners and 
underlying soil.

Area Disposal has already been dumping those chemicals into the Clinton 
landfill /since April, 2011/ on the basis of a secretly negotiated 
agreement with the DeWitt County Board that allowed the company to 
construct a new chemical waste unit (CWU) by merely “amending” an 
earlier permit for an ordinary municipal landfill. No public hearings 
were held.

The coalition has filed a legal complaint with the Illinois Pollution 
Control Board charging that conversion from a city landfill to a 
chemical waste unit required a new zoning process and public 
hearings.Since that was not done, they argue, the CWU permit was 
unlawfully obtained and the permit process must start all over 
again—which brings us to perhaps the most significant recent development 
in this story…

*3.A new majority of anti-landfill members was elected to the DeWitt 
County Board in November!! (Remember: this is the county board that has 
controlling authority over the landfill.)***

Eight of the 12 members of the new Board were elected largely on the 
strength of their opposition to the landfill.That means that, if the 
siting process does have to start over from scratch, the new DeWitt 
County Board will almost certainly deny the zoning request for the whole 
chemical waste unit.

The new board majority is determined to do everything within their 
authority to keep Clinton from becoming a large-scale center for toxic 
waste disposal and to protect the underlying aquifer from 
contamination.They are already taking steps to authorize the county 
Public Health Department to make regular inspections of the 
landfill.Until now Area Disposal has done its own testing and, indeed, 
has told the health department that they will “sue them if they step 
foot on the landfill property.”

Area Disposal’s attorneys are working hard to fend off all of the above 
legal challenges, so it is impossible to predict when all the litigation 
will work its way through the courts.Stay tuned.

*4.The governmental coalition has applied to the USEPA to have the 
Mahomet Aquifer designated a Sole Source Aquifer (SSA)*

In yet another separate line of defense, a number of cities and counties 
located over the aquifer have submitted an application to the USEPA to 
have the Mahomet Aquifer officially designated as a**Sole Source 
Aquifer**(SSA).To be granted that status, an aquifer must supply at 
least 51% of the water to a given population area, and there must be no 
economically feasible alternative supply of water.

An SSA designation would not automatically rule out a PCB disposal site 
at Clinton, but it would put in place several more protective layers of 
regulatory requirements for future projects above the aquifer.

*PLEASE NOTE*:On Wednesday, Jan. 30 from 1:00 to 3:00 PM a 
representative of the US EPA will host a Q and A session on the Sole 
Source Aquifer. It will be held at the Champaign City Council 
chambers.This is solely an informational meeting. We have been told that 
all are welcome, but reservations are required.If you would like to 
attend, email Angela Adams at angela.adams at ci.champaign.il.us 
<mailto:angela.adams at ci.champaign.il.us>or call her at 217-403-4780.

*_More importantly_*_: _There will be an _official_ EPA hearing on the 
SSA sometime in the next several months.It will be important to have as 
many SSA supporters there as possible.It will be even more helpful if 
you would be willing to speak on record in support of the Sole Source 
Aquifer. Keep an eye on the newspaper for the announcement.We’ll also 
send out a notice as soon as the date is made public.

Ann Burger, on behalf of AquiferWatch CU

**

**

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