Daily Archives: January 22, 2007

Peoria County, Peoria Disposal Company

Peoria Families Against Toxic Waste announce meeting

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From a press release I received today:

Peoria Families Against Toxic Waste
(309) 339-9733
www.notoxicwaste.org

January 22, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

Please announce the following:

PEORIA DISPOSAL COMPANY HOLDING PUBLIC MEETING ON EXPANDING LANDFILL WITHOUT COUNTY APPROVAL — FRIDAY, JANUARY 26 AT 9AM!

PEORIA FAMILIES AGAINST TOXIC WASTE AND HEART OF ILLINOIS SIERRA CLUB ENCOURAGE EVERYONE CONCERNED TO ATTEND!

Peoria Disposal Company (PDC), owner/operator of the hazardous waste landfill located at 4349 Southport Rd in Peoria, just west of Pleasant Valley Middle School and the Sterling Avenue business corridor, is holding a legally required public meeting on Friday, January 26 at 9am, as part of their application to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) for a Class 3 permit modification. PDC is claiming they are a manufacturer of the waste, because they mix inert substances with some of the hazardous waste, in an attempt to circumvent state law requiring local governmental approval of an expansion.

Peoria Families Against Toxic Waste (PFATW) and Heart of Illinois Sierra Club (HOISC) will be in attendance. We strongly encourage all citizens of Peoria County to attend as well. Come and learn about PDC’s maneuver to bypass the County Board’s decisive “no” vote. Public questions about the PDC Class 3 permit modification will be allowed at the meeting:

Friday, January 26, 2007
9:00am
PDC Laboratory
2231 W. Altorfer Drive, Peoria

We encourage concerned citizens to go to www.notoxicwaste.org for more information and directions.

Additional information:
PDC is asking the Illinois EPA to reclassify their hazardous waste landfill as a generator of waste rather than a regional pollution control facility, so they won’t need county approval to dump millions more tons of hazardous waste over our water source and upwind of Peoria. In fact, the EXACT same engineering drawings and plans put before the County in the expansion application have been submitted to IEPA for this Permit modification request. Peoria Disposal Company spent over $1,000,000 trying to convince the Peoria County Board to allow them to expand their hazardous waste site, but the County voted no based on the evidence. Now PDC is trying to claim they don’t need the county’s approval anyway. “It’s our backup plan,” said PDC attorney Brian Meginnes in a recent Peoria Journal Star article.

Other issues:
PFATW and HOISC are watchful of the four fronts PDC is pursuing with their hazardous waste landfill, including the appeal to the Illinois Pollution Control Board regarding the County Board’s denial of the PDC expansion request, and PDC’s recent application to the US EPA to take in increased levels of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), despite having said during the 2006 hearings that this was not their intention. PCBs are known carcinogens banned from production by the US Congress in 1977.

PDC has also applied to the Illinois EPA for a renewal of their operating permit, a renewal that includes two new 32,000 gallon steel silos and a new solids building with 9 underground holding tanks of 20,000 gallons each for their waste processing.

See our website, www.notoxicwaste.org, for our “Four Fronts” chart with more information on PDC’s latest activities.

Background on our group

PFATW is an ever-growing group of mainstream citizens who live and work in Peoria County and are concerned about the health and safety of our families. Like many other local grassroots organizations, the medical community and thousands of Peoria County citizens who voiced their strong concerns during the 2006 expansion hearings, we oppose Peoria Disposal Company’s (PDC) proposed expansion of its hazardous waste landfill so close to our homes as well as the new threat of toxic PCBs. We are compelled and unified by a common sense concern about the health and safety of our children. We seek to do what we see as our duty as concerned residents: to inform our neighbors and impact the public process.

We believe the long term negative affects of continued hazardous waste dumping right on the edge of our city are unknown and not worth the risk to our families’ health and investment in our good communities. Additionally, safety claims are unproven. Long-term benefits to our community are very low to non-existent. For these reasons we oppose the expansion and acceptance of PCBs.

We are citizens, taxpayers, parents and grandparents and we seek to protect our health and the health of our children.

Please go to www.notoxicwaste.org for more information.

Kellar Branch

Ray LaHood backs side-by-side rail with trail

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The Journal Star reports that Ray LaHood has given up on converting the Kellar Branch to a dedicated hiking trail in today’s second editorial in as many days on the topic. Quoth Congressman Ray:

“We need to build a trail next to the rail. I don’t think we’re ever going to get the kind of ruling we want” from the Surface Transportation Board.

So now the Journal Star is starting to consider the side-by-side option again. They’ve read the Park District’s estimate on how much it supposedly would cost and accepted it without question. I posited my response to that in the comments section of their website. I’ll quote it here, too:

The Journal Star says: “a park district analysis from July 2006 puts the side-by-side option at an astounding $29 million.”

Astounding indeed. I have a copy of this “analysis,” and it is completely unverifiable. There is no information on what engineering firm (if any) produced this estimate; no information on how they determined costs, materials, or labor; no location information given for the numerous “trestles” they claim are necessary; and no comparison to what the trail would cost if they could remove the rails. If Pioneer had put together an “analysis” as poor as the park district’s, the JSEB would be throwing every pejorative adjective in the thesaurus at it.

“there’s no guarantee that Peoria and Peoria Heights will find a suitable carrier…”

Pioneer is a suitable carrier by any objective measure. The only reason they would be considered unsuitable in your eyes is because they don’t agree with you regarding the rail-to-trail conversion.

“…or that any business besides Carver Lumber will want service.”

There are already two more companies that want service on the Kellar Branch, and the Heights is interested in trolley service on the line.

“The line could continue to lie fallow, covered in weeds and trash.”

Right now, the only reason the line is in that condition is because the City of Peoria is allowing it to remain that way. At present, CIRY has no contract with the city that would allow them to run trains on the line, and the city is still in a dispute with Pioneer over whether their contract is still in force; from the city’s perspective, they have no contract with either carrier. Thus, the responsibility falls to the city to maintain the line and abate the weed problem. Why haven’t they done it?

“Meanwhile, surrounding communities enjoy their bike paths, watching new homes sprout up around them.”

News flash: surrounding communities enjoy new construction for many reasons, including school districts and taxes. Accessibility to bike paths is not high on the priority list when people look for a home, if it’s on the list at all.

Another news flash: There’s no place for homes to “sprout up” along the Kellar Branch because there are already homes and businesses along the entire route — it goes right through the middle of the city.

Give it up, editors.

I should have added this: The Journal Star says, “Trains derail, even slow-moving ones. The poor condition of the Kellar tracks enhances that possibility unless there is substantial investment.” I would venture to say that the chances of being mugged on the trail are greater than the chances of having a train fall on you — unless the city hires Central Illinois Railroad to run the line, in which case the odds are even.