ED

ED

0CT172008

OCT1/r’

October 15,

2008

Pollution

STATE

OF

Control

ILUNOIS

Board

Pollution

STATE

0

IllinoisMr.

JohnPollution

Therriault,

Control

Assistant

Board

Clerk

cO

100

West Randolph,

Suite

11-500

Chicago, Illinois 60601-3218

1’?

0

1

r

j1f

Dear

Mr. John

Therriault

In regards

to

the most recent letter received

in September, we (Ruben Valdez and Alvin Valdez)

are

to

file an amended petition stating the

grounds in which we contest this citation. We feel

that this

order

has been

reached

unfairly and quite frankly we feel that we are

being

unfairly

singled out. There

are

others in our surrounding areas that clearly have

scrap metal collecting in

their yards yet they never have any problems with the pollution

board

or

any

others. We

have

been relentlessly trying comply with your board without smearing others

but

it is clear that

we

need to look around and see the other residents that have the same problems with the only

difference being they are not pointed

out

to

your

board

and there

for

conveniently

get

overlooked.

Upon looking at

the pictures

you

have supplied, we

see

that

a

lot of the problem was

because

tarps had blown off of the things that we had covered re-exposing areas that were already

addressed. The

sun itself rots these tarps

and we have found that they do not even last a year

under

normal circumstances. Another issue we

had

was the fact that there

were pictures

of

things

that didn’t even belong

to us

that

you had placed

in our file. This

is not

even fair.

You have stated in the original

letter/citation

that we have open litter and are operating an

unlicensed dump but we don’t see scrap metal as open litter or as being a dump. We see the

situation as a way of saving our planet by recycling and reusing as much of

our

parts as we can,

not only to save room in our dumpsites and disposal areas but

to

save money on our own parts

that we

would possibly need

to

fix our own vehicles. Much of

the

parts and scrap

that

we have

out

there have been used to make other things and as far as we are concerned, more people

should take part in this practice instead of filling our dumpsites with things that do not

decompose

quickly and therefore killing our environment with their disposable lifestyles.

---

We

are

enclosing

pictures

recently

taken at

the property

that we

are working

on

to

assure

to

you

that

we are

trying to

fix this

problem

so we hopefully

never

have to

hear

from your

board

again.

In the future

please

consider

looking

at

more

than

our

little

area

and

address

others

with

the same

problems.

You will

find that

they

may

be

just down

the

road

and

just

maybe

they

are

the

same people

that

are

so busy

pointing

fingers

at us

that they

fail

to see

their own

open

litter

accumulating

right

under

their

own noses.

My

mother

once

said

to me

and

I

believe

this

applies

to

this

situation,

“If you

look

at

your hand

while

you are

pointing

at

others

you

will

see

that

you

have

three

of your

own

fingers

pointing

back

at you

!“

Sincerely

Ruben

Valdez

and

Alvin

Valdez

Enclosure:

---

c°14

/