
				Pat Quinn, Governor

Agency Links

Info Centers

To report
environmental
emergencies
only, call the
Illinois Emergency
Management Agency
800-782-7860
217-782-7860
(24 hrs/day)

Environmental Progress - Autumn 1996

Legal Counsel Side-Bars

New Enforcement Approach Used in Saline County Case

On Aug. 9, 1996, an agreement was reached between the Illinois EPA, the Office of the Attorney General, and the owners of a southern Illinois landfill, concluding an enforcement case against the landfill. Under the agreement the owners of the Saline County Landfill must clean up an abandoned large area of waste in Pope County, dumped from the top of Stafford Bluff near Dixon Springs.

Illinois EPA has begun using a new enforcement tool called Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP). A facility is able to reduce its monetary penalty by agreeing to perform a SEP. In the Saline County case, the landfill owners agreed to clean up the waste in exchange for a reduction in the penalty assessed against the firm.

The Saline County Landfill owners have already placed a fence along the roadway at the top of the bluff where the dumping occurred. Within the next few weeks, they will begin the cleanup of waste at the base of the bluff.

Illinois EPA Shows Interest In Greater Chicago Initiative

Illinois EPA Attorney Peter Orlinsky, and Jim Janssen of the Office of Pollution Prevention, have been representing the Agency at meetings aimed at protecting the environment in the greater Chicago area under a program called the Greater Chicago Initiative (GCI).

The GCI is a consortium of government agencies including U.S. EPA, Illinois EPA, the Chicago Department of the Environment, Chicago Law Department, Cook County State's Attorney, Cook County Department of Environmental Control, and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.

The GCI utilizes steering and enforcement committees to develop projects to be undertaken by the various agencies, and select for inspection facilities likely to have multi-media problems.