Last week the Illinois EPA was ordered by Governor Pat Quinn to modify the Clinton Landfill Permit for Peoria Disposal Company. According to Sen. Chapin Rose, this fight has been going on at least five years and the Governor has not always been on the side of the people on this issue.

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Because the Governor has not always taken the peoples side on this issue, Sen. Rose says he can't call it "a strong stand". Before issuing his order to modify the permit, the Governor's office claimed they needed more information from the DeWitt County Board, however Sen. Rose contends he has had the documents all along.

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Last week, the Illinois EPA was also ordered to include in the modified permit, the landfill's acceptance of manufactured gas plant chemicals, or MGPs. According to Sen. Rose, that is another positive step, but the landfill has been accepting MGPs for some time, and now something needs to be done about those already in the landfill.

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Sen. Rose feels this situation makes the Governor look like "a white knight" and he feels it should not because he defended the EPA for issuing the permit, and just now decided to come down on the right side of the issue. He feels this is all a political ploy because of how many people it effects locally.

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Sen. Rose believes if the whole issue is to be put to bed, they need to have a concrete answer on what the future of MGP waste will be. He says he continues to seek out answers and to this point has not gotten anywhere. Sen. Rose adds by modifying the permit instead of revoking it is allowing other unknown chemicals to come in.

Sen. Rose calls the actions by Gov. Quinn "a partial victory".