R2015-103 APPROVING A CONSENT ORDER TO SETTLE ALL CLAIMS IN A CITIZENS' COMPLAINT

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has filed for review with the Board. The Illinois Attorney General is defending IEPA in these appeals that are currently pending before the Board. In March of 2015, following the decision of the USEPA to designate the Aquifer as a sole source Aquifer which requires stricter regulation and oversight, CLI began talks with the Coalition as well as the Illinois Attorney General's office in an effort to settle all disputes. As a result, a proposed Consent Order has been drafted between Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, Clinton Landfill, Inc., and the current fourteen(14) local government agencies, which now comprise the expanded Coalition. You are being asked to approve the City entering into this Order. Several of the other local governments have already approved the Order with the remaining scheduled to act this month. If approved by all parties, the Order would resolve the pending litigation regarding the disposal of certain hazardous materials in the Clinton landfill. As a procedural matter, a new case will be filed in DeWitt County by the Coalition alleging that CLI has created a public nuisance related to the disposal of the MGP waste at the landfill. The Order will be then filed in that case. This is the preferred venue as opposed to entering the Order in the Illinois Pollution Control Board case because of the increased enforcement methods a Circuit Court has over the Board. If no settlement is reached by the parties, the pending legal cases will resume until final decisions are rendered by the Appellate Court and the Board. The Order would allow manufactured gas plant(MGP) waste already deposited at the landfill to remain. In exchange, Clinton Landfill, Inc. is barred from accepting any more MGP source material or submitting any more applications to dispose of MGP source materials or federally regulated PCB waste at any landfill facility anywhere in DeWitt County over the Mahomet Aquifer. Additionally, the landfill is required to receive at minimum, semi-annual groundwater monitoring, and must provide at least 12 additional inches of cover over the MGPs stored there. Specifically, the proposed Consent Order provides that, * CLI agrees to withdraw its application before the USEPA for approval to accept PCB waste regulated by the Federal Toxic Substance Control Act in the chemical waste unit at the Clinton Landfill (which was done in May 2015) and agree not to seek future approval to dispose of said PCB waste in any landfill facility located anywhere in DeWitt County over the Mahomet Aquifer. * CLI agrees to not accept additional MGP waste with chemical constituents in concentrations exceeding state regulatory limits for toxicity in the landfill and agree to not seek future permission from any regulatory body to accept such MGP waste at any landfill facility located anywhere in DeWitt County over the Mahomet Aquifer. In August 2015, Gov. Rauner signed legislation prohibiting MGP waste in municipal landfills except in permitted chemical hazardous waste disposal sites. * CLI agrees to cover the MGP waste already disposed of in the chemical waste unit (pursuant to an earlier Illinois EPA approval)with a 12 inch layer of impermeable clay