Lawmakers: Hazardous Waste Sites Need OK from Aquifer Counties

Four area lawmakers say it took the approval of the DeWitt County Board to send a controversial proposal to store PCB's at the Clinton landfill to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But those lawmakers say that under their proposal, one county's OK would not be enough.

Under their legislation (House Bill 6153), any hazardous waste facility located over an aquifer would need the approval of county boards of all the counties with land over that aquifer. The Clinton Landfill lies over the Mahomet Aquifer, which spreads out over 15 different counties.

That includes Champaign County, where the county board has already gone on record opposing the storage of PCB's at the Clinton Landfill. However, the Champaign County Board vote has no legal effect, because the landfill addition would be built in DeWitt County, not Champaign County.

State Sen. Mike Frerichs (D-Champaign) said requiring all 15 counties in the Mahomet Aquifer area to approve the storage of PCB's is a good way to avoid what he calls "pollution without representation."

'There are communities throughout east-central Illinois that are going to potentially have grave harm to their drinking source, their aquifer, and not have some say in the siting of this landfill. And that's the problem we're hoping to rectify," Frerichs said.

Besides Frerichs, the measure also has the backing of State Rep. Naomi Jakobsson, (D-Urbana), Bill Mitchell (R-Forsyth) and Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet).

Rose drafted the legislation, working with Piatt County State's Attorney Dana Rhoades. Rose said he hopes he can win approval for the measure in the General Assembly, before the EPA makes a ruling on the Clinton Landfill proposal.

"There's a race to beat the clock here," Rose said. "If the federal EPA issues a permit, then we have a problem. So we're trying to do this as quickly as possible."

The EPA has delayed making a ruling on the Clinton Landfill PCB proposal, pending further study.