3/24/15 Bloomington Joins Effort

One of the several efforts to stop the PCB dumping at the Clinton Landfill over the Mahomet Sole Source is an effort by a Champaign City organized multi-governmental coalition in the courts to force DeWitt County to hold the site-ing they illegally omitted in the initial permitting process.

In the last election the anti-PCB dumping folks lost control of the DeWitt County Board. The current board chair and a majority of the current board members are longtime proponents of the Clinton Landfill's plans.

Additionally:

• The DeWitt County government is absurdly wasteful with taxpayer funds - for instance they just purchased a building for the county animal shelter that their own architect had said was inappropriate for a county building. It's a pole building with untreated poles.
• There is serious talk about shutting down Clinton Power Plant which would be a huge blow to the tax base of DeWitt County.
• The Landfill is withholding fees for the municipal waste side of the landfill in an effort to strong arm DeWitt County into concessions about the PCB dumping. So far DeWitt County is talking about concessions.
• Clinton Marina (owned by DeWitt County) has been allowed to deteriorate for decades and now the IL Attorney General and the public are forcing very expensive long overdue maintenance.   

All this makes the DeWitt County Board extremely vulnerable to financial pressuring.

Because of documented illegal past DeWitt County Board activities in connection with the PCB dumping the Landfill will undoubtedly sue DeWitt County if they don't get their PCB permit.

The PCB dumping also represents a new source of revenue for DeWitt County government.

So the inefficient DeWitt County Board (already inclined to side with the Landfill) will be able to point to financial pressure and fear of being sued as reasons to permit the dumping if the site-ing is returned to them for approval.

The coalition realizes these things and more and is going to try to become an interested party in the site-ing process as is reflected in the following two stories.

3/23/15 Pantagraph story

3/24/15 Pantagraph story

DeWitt County protecting us from this irresponsible, dangerous threat to the Mahomet Sole Source Aquifer is far from a sure thing. A similarly constituted board with many of the same members defied public opinion in the initial, illegal approval. The effort of the coalition to intercede is critically important.