<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><br><br>--- On <b>Thu, 7/12/12, Champaign County Health Care Consumers <i><cchcc@healthcareconsumers.org></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><br>From: Champaign County Health Care Consumers <cchcc@healthcareconsumers.org><br>Subject: [cchcc-l] 5th & Hill VICTORY! City Council approves transparency amendment!<br>To: cchcc-l@lists.shout.net<br>Date: Thursday, July 12, 2012, 4:16 PM<br><br><div class="plainMail"><br>Dear Friends,<br><br>On Tuesday, July 10, the 5th & Hill Neighborhood Rights Campaign achieved<br>a victory when the Champaign City Council voted to create a transparency<br>amendment for the City's Groundwater Restriction Ordinance.<br><br>You can read about the passage of the transparency amendment in The<br>News-Gazette at:<br><br><a
 href="http://www.news-gazette.com/news/environment/2012-07-12/champaign-notification-rules-soil-cleanup-get-stricter.html" target="_blank">http://www.news-gazette.com/news/environment/2012-07-12/champaign-notification-rules-soil-cleanup-get-stricter.html</a><br><br>BACKGROUND: GROUNDWATER ORDINANCE<br>Some of you may remember that the 5th & Hill Neighborhood Rights Campaign<br>worked very hard to convince the City Council that the City's Groundwater<br>Restriction Ordinance should be repealed. The Groundwater Restriction<br>Ordinance allows any polluter in the City of Champaign to pollute our<br>groundwater, a precious natural resource, without being forced to clean it<br>up. That means that anyone who lives close to a polluted property could<br>have their health and property value diminished when polluters use the<br>City's ordinance to leave their toxic contamination in the groundwater.<br><br>The City Council ultimately decided to NOT repeal the
 ordinance, saying<br>that there are five businesses in the City of Champaign that would be<br>negatively affected if the ordinance were repealed. Alternatively, the City<br>offered to create a transparency amendment and attach it to the Ordinance<br>to increase the visibility of its use.<br><br>For the next few weeks, members of the 5th & Hill Neighborhood Rights<br>Campaign worked with City Staff to craft an ordinance that upholds our<br>community's basic right to know; provides for a complaint process that<br>residents can follow; and outlines penalties for businesses who fail to<br>properly notify the neighborhood where they plan to leave contamination<br>behind.<br><br>THE TRANSPARENCY AMENDMENT<br>With the passage of the transparency amendment to the Groundwater<br>Restriction Ordinance, polluters will be required to notify (via different<br>means) the neighborhood about the toxic contamination and the plan to<br>invoke the groundwater
 ordinance. Residents will be notified by newspaper,<br>the posting of signs, and for those properties within 500 feet of the<br>polluted property, a notification letter will be sent via mail.<br><br>RIGHT TO KNOW<br>Champaign County Health Care Consumers has always held dear the notion<br>that for meaningful and concrete changes to occur, consumers must be made<br>aware of what is going on. This transparency amendment provides residents<br>of Champaign with the knowledge of what is going on in their own backyard<br>and provides them with meaningful ways to keep these polluters accountable<br>for the damage they do to our groundwater.<br><br>News Gazette article on the passage of the transparency amendment:<br><br><a href="http://www.news-gazette.com/news/environment/2012-07-12/champaign-notification-rules-soil-cleanup-get-stricter.html"
 target="_blank">http://www.news-gazette.com/news/environment/2012-07-12/champaign-notification-rules-soil-cleanup-get-stricter.html</a><br><br>As always, thank you for your support!<br><br>Sincerely,<br><br>Champaign County Health Care Consumers<br><br>--<br><br>Check out the 5th & Hill Neighborhood Rights Campaign on Facebook!<br><a href="https://www.facebook.com/5thandHillNRC" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/5thandHillNRC</a><br><br>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br>Champaign County Health Care Consumers<br>44 E. Main Street  Suite 208<br>Champaign, IL 61820<br><br>Phone: (217) 352-6533<br>Fax:   (217) 352-9745<br>E-mail: <a ymailto="mailto:cchcc@healthcareconsumers.org" href="/mc/compose?to=cchcc@healthcareconsumers.org">cchcc@healthcareconsumers.org</a><br>Web:    www.healthcareconsumers.org<br><br>Check out CCHCC on Facebook at
 www.facebook.com/healthcareconsumers!<br>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br><br>Support health care justice - donate to CCHCC today! Visit our website to make a tax-deductible contribution today.<br><a href="http://www.healthcareconsumers.org/index.php?action=Donation" target="_blank">http://www.healthcareconsumers.org/index.php?action=Donation</a><br>_______________________________________________<br>To manage your subscription to the CCHCC email list, please click the link below.<br>cchcc-l mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:cchcc-l@lists.shout.net" href="/mc/compose?to=cchcc-l@lists.shout.net">cchcc-l@lists.shout.net</a><br><a href="http://lists.shout.net/mailman/listinfo/cchcc-l" target="_blank">http://lists.shout.net/mailman/listinfo/cchcc-l</a><br></div></blockquote></td></tr></table>