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Kendall urges
Joliet to find
new plant site
Chicago
Tribune - 1/22
Joliet's
plan to build a sewage-treatment plant along the Aux Sable Creek
in Kendall County hit another roadblock Tuesday when the County
Board urged the city to find another site.
The
resolution also asks that the location "have no impact on
natural areas" and eliminate the possibility of discharging
sewage into the creek.
Citizens
for Aux Sable Creek, a new lobbying group, is fighting the city's
request for a permit to build the $32 million plant by the creek,
which the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency considers a
high-quality stream. The Naperville-based Conservation Foundation
also opposes Joliet's plans.
Joliet
City Manager John Mezera said other sites are being scouted, and
a recommendation to the City Council should be made before the
Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission starts hearings on Joliet's
request.
Joliet,
which has had a presence in Kendall County since 1997, originally
proposed discharging water into Aux Sable Creek. But city officials
recently amended their plan, proposing to discharge sewage into
the DuPage River in Will County.
The
controversy began after Joliet officials proposed building the
plant in Seward Township at a site north of U.S. Highway 52 and
a few miles west of Ridge Road. Developers are building homes
in a 1-mile area between Ridge Road and the Kendall County line.
City
officials say the plant, which could be built and opened within
three years, would serve new homes west of Ridge Road. Developers
say the plant is needed for growth to continue beyond the road.
The
plant could serve 76,000 residents, though it could take decades
for the population to reach that total, city officials said.
The
Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission has implemented a more
involved hearing process to consider Joliet's request. At the
request of the County Board, the agency has agreed to a public
hearing March 6 in Yorkville at the Kendall County Courthouse.
Under
the original schedule, NIPC officials would have considered the
matter twice at the agency's Chicago office. Now, testimony from
the March 6 hearing and staff recommendations will be given to
the commission's water resources committee in March.
The
agency's full board will consider the water committee's recommendation
March 27 in Chicago. The NIPC board will send a non-binding recommendationto
the IEPA, said Deborah Washington, NIPC director of development.
Opponents
say they are not trying to stop Joliet's growth but are worried
about the creek's water, home to the endangered greater redhorse
suckerfish.
"The
history of Joliet dealing with water quality issues is not good
and the concern is that attitude would resonate with any new development
in the Aux Sable Creek watershed," said Brook McDonald, executive
director of the Conservation Foundation.
But
Mezera dismissed the criticism, citing the two sewage-treatment
plants that the city operates.
"We
probably have a record that is very similar to other municipalities
and other treatment entities," he said. `
Still,
some of the 200 people who attended a meeting last week weren't
convinced.
"While
Joliet says they now plan to discharge into the DuPage, not the
Aux Sable, we continue to object to the location of the plant
on the creek," Cindy Ellis, a Citizens for Aux Sable Creek
committee leader, said after the meeting. "Their location
protects their option to discharge in the future."
Mezera
denied that Joliet would reverse its position and try to discharge
water into the Aux Sable. Joliet will work to address concerns
of Kendall officials and residents, he said.
The
Joliet City Council moved the city's boundary across the Will
County line with annexations in mid-1996. A few months later,
despite objections from Kendall residents and a negative NIPC
recommendation, the IEPA gave Joliet the authority to extend its
utilities into a 30-square-mile area of Kendall County.
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