Barring any last minute delay the Illinois Pollution Control Board will rule Thursday, March 17, on the appeal against the DeKalb County Board’s decision to approve a major expansion of a landfill in Cortland. As a founding member of Stop the DeKalb County Mega-Dump it is my prayers that the IPCB rule in favor of the appeal and against the decision of the County Board and the proposed landfill expansion.
The public has been able to follow the proceedings on the IPCB’s website. Citizens have submitted comments to be read into the record. On the IPCB website more than 40 citizens have written letters against the proposed website expansion. Only two, Ray Bockman (DeKalb County Administrator) and Paul Borek (DCEDC) submitted letters through the IPCB website that are in favor of the landfill. The ratio of more than a township garage full of Cortland Township registered voters who voted NO to allowing the expansion versus the spattering of those in support was even more heavily weighted against. But who’s counting? 🙂
The waiting period is a matter of high anxiety for me.
The optimist in me says my faith in the system, as the founding fathers intended, will be rewarded by a ruling that states any landfill decisions are to be made on scientific data that protects children and adults from harm’s way and NOT ANYTHING to do with the need for revenue streams not requiring a referendum.
My pessimistic side says money talks. It says The Price was Right for a few individuals with retirement just around the corner to see their name imprinted on a foundation stone for building monuments and leave everyone else in this county with 40-years of a growing mountain of garbage.
Our attorney has done a great job representing Stop The DeKalb County Mega-Dump. In his brief he concluded:
For all the foregoing reasons, as well as all the additional reasons cited in its opening brief, Stop the Mega-Dump respectfully prays that the decision of the DeKalb County board granting siting approval for expansion of the leaking DeKalb County Landfill be reversed. No other decision protects the integrity of the siting process and the public health, safety and welfare.
The County Board must have thought he did a good job, too. They ignored the rule that limited their response to 50 pages:
Now comes the Respondent, County Board of DeKalb County, Illinois (“County Board”), by and through its attorneys, and for its Motion for Waiver of the Page Limit for Post-Hearing Response Brief before the Pollution Control Board (“Board”), states as follows:
1. Section 101.302(k) of the Board’s procedural rules states as follows:
Page Limitation. No motion, brief in support of motion, or brief may exceed 50 pages, and no amicus curiae brief may exceed 20 pages, without prior approval of the Board or hearing officer. These limits do not include appendices containing relevant material. 35 Ill. Adm. Code 101.302(k).
2. In order to fully and fairly present Respondent’s case before this Board, Respondent respectfully requests a waiver of the applicable 50-page limitation.
George Mueller, our attorney, replied:
There is no valid reason articulated for the County to be excused from the well-established page limit for briefs. Making the same point repetitively and longwindedly does not make it more legitimate or more persuasive. The County can argue for a hundred pages, if it likes, that pre-filing ex parte contacts are irrelevant to fundamental fairness, and that will still not be the law. Similarly, the County can argue for a hundred pages, if it likes, that pre-filing private guided tours of similar facilities have been expressly sanctioned by the Board, but that will still not be the law. The County Board can argue for a hundred pages, if it likes, that pre-hearing actions by the decision maker which chill discourage and limit public participation, are irrelevant if those who does bother to show up are ultimately allowed to participate, but that will still not be the law.
He expects a mid-day decision. The citizens stood up when needed throughout this process. Let’s hope our faith is rewarded.
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