“County must aggressively fight landfill appeal” is the title of the JS Editorial Comment column today. As you recall the JS strongly supported the PDC Expansion Application, especially after the 30 extra requirements (criteria) were added and approved by the PDC. Now that 12 of the 18 member County Board voted against the application and the added criteria, the JS calls attention to the fact of who is going to be responsible for the landfill after PDC is not legally be required to service this landfill after the year 2034. The JS writes “Those County Board members who were convinced the landfill was not safe and voted no because they were convinced the landfill was not safe nor compatible still need to reckon with the liability. Then the JS asks, Why the silence?”
Indeed, why the silence??? And indeed, not just the County Board members but the entire community should be asking who is going to be responsible. Some board members, extreme environmentalist and the Sierra Club say let the government take it over. Who funds the government? It wouldn’t be us taxpayers, would it?
Time will tell whether the “no” voters made a mistake that may eventually cost Peoria County taxpayers millions of dollars. Please re-read the testimony of Dr. Zwicky, who claimed to have the support of 750 doctors who opposed PDC’s application. This testimony and cross-examination is posted in full on my blog site dated 4/13/06 and also reprinted on the counties website www.peoriacounty.org If you can find any Zwicky’s testimony that said more than that toxins kill if not properly handled (any adult should know that), please call me personally as I am in the phone book or post your comments on this site. In conversations, it appears that most doctors feel that emotions overrode evidence and common sense. I remind you again that the only practicing doctor who actually toured the site and learned what was going on was Dr. Stephen Smart. His ‘letter to the editors”, can also be found in my April blog archives.
Note that the Civic Federation’s Executive council, presided over by Michael Bryant CEO of Methodist Hospital, had a majority vote in support of PDC’s application. So did the Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Development Council and the Heartland partnership. Also the public support of the Teamsters Union and the silent approval of most union members and leadership.
My proper decision to “keep the Coulters in town and responsible for the next 48 years and with a hundreds of million dollar trust fund handled by an independent financial institution”; we “yes” voters decision will be proven true. More so, if PDC wins on appeal which some authorities feel they have a good chance of doing. Remember, if PDC does win, all the 30 “special criteria” accepted if the vote was “yes”, will go “out the window”. In this “special criteria”, was the stipulation that PDC, a locally owned company and a good steward of unpopular waste; a company whose employees protect the welfare of all citizens, could NOT sell to another company without County Board approval. When the vote was no, all 30 added criteria left the bargaining table. Also gone is the special air monitoring over and above what is required of the EPA.
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