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becember 20 2003

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borothy M Gunn, Clerk

OllUtiOn

Control Board

tllinois Pollution Control Board

-

James R. Thompson Center

100 W Randolph St., Suite 11-500

~Ø7

Chicago, IL 60601

RE:

Case

PCB 03-188 and PCB 03-218

To The Illinois Pollution Control Board:

I believe the City of Rochelle made the correct decision when they did not approve the

Rochelle Waste Disposal expansion. The applicant talks about the fundamental fairness issue

regarding the City of Rochelle’s decision, saying the Council was influenced by the citizens.

Common sense tells me that the applicant is really the one who has the unfair advantage

over the entire process. The following will make my point:

1. The applicant is allowed to pay increased tipping fees to the City of Rochelle

only if

they vote to approve a landfill expansion.

The City is also offered big bucks,

($200,000 I believe,) once the expanded area is operational....that is viewed by many

citizens as giving increased and unfair pressure in favor of an expansion.

2. Prior to the second application being submitted, a Citizens Advisory committee was

selected by the City of Rochelle to discuss issues regarding any future expansion of

the landfill. The meetings were open to the public and could have been healthy to

the process if all parties could have had equal representation. Not one of the Board

Members or Officers of the Concerned Citizens of Ogle County was included on the

committee who would provide a final report to the city. Also no funds, although

requested by the committee, were given to hire outside experts. Instead most of

the information and input was provided by the applicant. With all due respect to the

committee members, they were NOT experts to even know the right questions to

ask. It seems as though this would be like having a jury make a decision without

listening to both sides of the story through cross examination of witnesses.

3. The applicants had large resources to pay expert witnesses and several attorneys to

make their case before and during the hearings. Citizens had limited resources....

one expert witness and one attorney paid for thru donations and fund raisers. We all

know that the more money spent making a case, gives one the best odds during their

day in court.

4. You can surely bet that the applicant did plenty of “pleading their case” with the

City leading up to the hearings and knowing full well what details were in their

application. Once the application for expansion was filed, the Council Members and

the Mayor of Rochelle were unable to discuss the landfill issue with the citizens.

Another words, the citizens could not have a two-way discussion of the actual

application with the council and mayor prior to their vote.

---

The applicant, in their appeal, seems to say the citizens should be silenced. If citizens could

not speak out through editorials to express their opinions on such an important issue, I

would say that would truly be fundamentally unfair. The City of Rochelle made the correct

decision to deny this landfill expansion based on the facts presented.

cere

Priscilla Thuesta

7831 5. Locust Rd

Rochelle, IL 61068