Rudolph & Joanne Kern

2814W

. Newman Pkwy

.

Peoria, IL 61604

RECEIVEDCLERK'S

OFFICE

MAR 0 7 2007

STATE OF %U-%%0!c

Pollution Control Board

---

Insanity to bury hazardouswaste

over water supply

Ihave been following the issue of proposed

fillinMinois

and the greater part of the Mid-

expansion of the Peoria Disposal Company's

west, and one of only a few in the nation

. Marry

hazardous waste landfill on the west edge of

'of the mosttoxic

chemicals are

to be

Peoria, and attended

PDCs piesentation to

the Peoria city Council last November

:

buried here, and 15 states send them hem

The majority

of these cheinlraig

are vola-

This landfill is the worst thing I have seen

tile, meaning they literally dissipate into the

-

in my

90

years in this community

I say that

air we breathe

. Yet there is no air pollution

without reservation.

testing, and this

factorisbeing ignored by

It is amazing thatt in this era of space

technoloex

we are building a mountain here

our government

If mankind keeps handling its waste

of a couple million tons of a huge assortment this watt

we

are going too go the way of the

of terribly toxic chemicals In the

belli f that

dinosaurs. Of

the billions we spend on space

a

of

leaking

plastic

the Peoria

Into

liner

the

area's

will

aquifer

forever

tap water

prom

prevent

which

is pumpedthem

over

.

fromhalf

programs,

even far more

we must

on caring

spend

for

as

and

much,

preservingindeed,

our space ship Earth. We have to find ways

PDC's toxic

waste landfill sits right over that

.

to detoxify and recycle all such waste. It is

precious groundwater supply Plastic breaks

and cracks with age and stress, and chemicals

insanity

can eat into and through it.

BU RUniERPORB SR.

Moreover, it Is

the only hazardous waste land-

.

FORM PARK FOUNUAI1ON

PEORIA NEOGS I

11

A4 .

SUNDAY

JANUARI2s.2000

.

)OURNAL STAR

To Whom This Concerns

:

Four months after renown conservationist Bill

Rutherford, who died Nov . 21, sent the above letter, the

Peoria County Board voted 12 to 6

not to grant a permit to Peoria Disposal Co . to expand its toxic waste

landfill here . That vote followed the largest and

longest (6

days) public hearing in area history .

_PDC isappealing the county's permit denial to

the Illinois Pollution Control Board

. The

IPCB hearing on the case was January

8, and it will accept citizen comment letters

though April 6!

Let theIPCBknow your views ..

The letters will be posted on the

IPCB's web site

. Yours will count

. The address is:

Illinois Pollution Control Board, Clerk's Office,

Case 2006-184

100 W. Randolph St

., Suite 11-500, Chicago, IL

60601

(Letters only

. E-mails not accepted)

Also,

write or fax the Journal Star.

The Situation :

PDC's proposed expansion would

triple

the volume of its toxic waste landfill, adding 2.2

million tons to

40 acres

on the top of its hilltop landfill -- already

much higher than originally due to years of dumping

. It

would make that hill another 45 feet higher at least

(5 stories), a superdome of

toxic waste considerably

higher than any other hill in the area, and covering

an area greater than Bradley U's campus . Its contents,

from 15 states so far, would be encased in manmade

sidewalls of dirt lined with plastic membrane and

own by bulldozers

. Hardly a leakproof scenario.

PDC's is the only'remaining commercial hazardous waste

landfill from Indianapolis to the Rocky Mts .

in the

nation's upper half

. Such waste from a dozen states

is regularly brought here .

PDC has been operating

since 1940, but state toxic waste regulations

didn't begin until 1987

. And:

**The dump site sits above the shallow sand-gravel aquifer from which

most of the Peoria area water supply

is drawn

. Yet PDC's Illinois EPA permit allows 843

of the nation's most toxic chemicals to be put there

--

but requires just quarterly tests for only 20 --

with PDC designating the day for EPA to take test

samples .

**This landfill has vents for gaseous emissions and is immediately upwind of Peoria

. But there is

no testing

for air pollution, though research has revealed it to be a major health issue around such landfills

elsewhere .

7

The federal "toxic release inventory" for Peoria County is by far the highest in Illinois, 4 times

more than

Cook County's (Chicago), and 16th in the nation,

according to the 2002 USEPA report .

It lists the PDC

toxic waste landfi as releasing 21

times more than any other area source .

a landfill isIa "forever" hazard.

We need to close it now with strictly

enforced

er etual safe uards

Tom Edwards, River Rescue, 902 W . Moss

Ave, Peoria,11 61606