February 3, 2007
Illinois Pollution Control Board
Clerk's Office
Case PCB 2006-184
100 W
. Randolph St .
Suite 11-500
Chicago, IL 60601
Re: PDC hazardous waste landfill expansion
Dear Pollution Control Board members :
RECEIVE
CLERK'S OFFICE
FEfl
CLE'S
OFFICE
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200?
STATE OF ILLINOIS
Pollution Control Board
c,
Peoria, IL, is home to myself and my two young children, and I'm writing to express my opposition to the
expansion of PDC's hazardous waste landfill outside of Peoria . The EPA admits that all landfills,
including hazardous ones and including those with liners, will leak eventually
.*see e r"""
Therefore, it
would be foolhardy and irresponsible to allow additional hazardous waste materials to be landfilled in our
backyards and on top of our water supply .
The primary responsibility of public officials is to protect the health and best interests of the public .
Private businesses will go out of their way to take care of their interests . It is up to you to ensure that the
health of our children, grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren, etc
., is not sacrificed for the
short-term.benefits,of private industry
. The financial welfare of PDC and other private corporations is not
your responsibility
. They do just fine taking care of their interests and will find ways to continue to do so
without the expansion of the hazardous waste landfill .
Peoria County has done its job for many years by providing a place for the region and other areas of the
nation to dispose of their hazardous waste
. PDC has profited from this . Area businesses have benefited
from this by having an economical option of disposing their toxic waste
. When these toxins do leak out
of the landfill and create health problems for the people living in this community, it will be impossible to
prove that a single company or even several companies are responsible
. In the end, none of them will
bear the responsibility . It will fall to the County and its citizens to attempt to clean up the mess and to
deal with the health ramifications that develop
. The hazardous waste landfill is already a tremendous
liability to this community . There is no good reason to add to the potential for harm by adding more
poisons, toxins, and other hazardous waste to the landfill .
Therefore, for the sake of my children and all future generations, I ask you to uphold the decision of the
Peoria County Board denying the expansion of PDC's hazardous waste landfill . Take this opportunity to
do the right thing for Peoria's citizens, including those not yet born but who will inherent the
consequences of the decision you make .
Sincerely,
4
.
Monica Ball
2202 W. Riviera Dr.
Peoria. IL 61614
309-691-5328
*In the FEDERAL REGISTER Feb . 5, 1981, the EPA first stated its opinion that all landfills will
eventually leak :
"There is good theoretical and empirical evidence that the hazardous constituents that are placed in land
disposal facilities very likely will migrate from the facility into the broader environment. This may occur
several years, even many decades, after placement of the waste in the facility, but data and scientific
prediction indicate that, in most cases, even with the application of best available land disposal
technology, it will occur eventually
." [pg . 11128]
"Manmade permeable materials that might be used for liners or covers
(e.g., membrane liners or other
materials) are subject to eventual deterioration, and although this might not occur for 10, 20 or more
years, it eventually occurs and, when it does, leachate will migrate out of the facility ." [pg . 11128]
"Consequently, the regulation of hazardous waste land disposal facilities must proceed from the
assumption that migration of hazardous wastes and their constituents and by-products from a land
disposal facility will inevitably occur
." [pg. 11129[
"Some have argued that liners are devices that provide a perpetual seal against any migration from a
waste management unit
. EPA has concluded that the more reasonable assumption, based on what is
known about the pressures placed on liners over time, is that any liner will begin to leak eventually
." [pgs
.
32284-32285] .
In the FEDERAL REGISTER May
26, 1981 (pgs. 28314 through 28328), the EPA argued forcefully that
all landfills will eventually leak . Another EPA quote
:
"Many organic constituents are stable (degrade very slowly)
; other hazardous constituents (e.g ., toxic
metals) never degrade
. Yet the existing technology for disposing of hazardous wastes on or in the land
cannot confidently isolate these wastes from the environment forever .
"Since disposing of hazardous wastes in or on the land inevitable [inevitably?] results in the release
of hazardous constituents to the environment at some time, any land disposal facility creates some
risk." [pg. 283151
