December 15, 2006
Christine Favilla
Three
Rivers Project Coordinator
R
CLERK'S
E C
E I
OFFICE
V
E D
Piasa Palisades Group of the Sierra Club
DEC )
u 2006
223 Market Street
Alton,
IL 62002
STATE OF ILLINOIS
Phone : (618) 462-6802
Pollution Control Boarc
chtistine .favilla(a-),s
ierraelub
.org
Dorothy Gumi, Clerk
Illinois Pollution Control Board
James R. Thompson Center
100 W. Randolph St ., Ste 11-500
Chicago. IL 60601
PCB 06-171
To Whom It May Concern
:.
The Piasa Palisades Group of the Sierra Club requests a public hearing on tl
Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency's water permit to Granite City Steel for tl"ir
industrial discharge into Horseshoe Lake in 2005
.
Because of the Sierra Club members' activity at the Lake, we requested the ?PA to hold a
hearing last year. They did not grant us this hearing; instead they issued the
-rmit l4 months
after the initial public notice . The Washington University Clinic's Engineer have found a
number of things wrong with the permit, including allowing more than 300(tounds of zinc to
be discharged annually into a lake that is impaired for zinc, allowing double )e cyanide
allowed, allowing a mixing, zone in a lake without flow . The lake has high acentrations of
zinc, lead and cadmium in the sediment. It is also impaired for PCBs, pH, sspended solids,
excessive algal growth, am$nonia (unionized), nutrients, phosphorus, and tot
ammonia (N).
Granite
officialIllinois
City Steel
toxicologist'
supposedly
with
discharges
the State
some
of
of
Illinois
its sewage
to look
into
into
the
the
lake
sewage-elated
ar we request
problemsan
in the lake and to make an official report . This lake is definitely not swimm
.le, but there are
residents that think it is fishmble . I have witnessed fishermen at the lake, durimg our semi-
annual clean-ups of the lake, its tributaries, and the roads surrounding the lal . People fish at
the lake and many eat the fish from the lake, including subsistence fishers
. Lave never seen a
sign near the fishing sites warring the residents of the toxins and metals that already in the
lake, or a sign letting them know that Granite City Steel is hoping to pollute
le lake even
more.
It is a state park, with yearly attendance above 350,000 . This permit deserve a public
.
hearing.
Christine Favilla
Three Rivers Project Coordinator
