Newly appointed Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director Mary Gade told a weekend meeting of Du Page municipal and county officials that Gov. Jim Edgar has been thinking about a lot of garbage.
She said Edgar considers the House bill that deals with the siting of municipal waste facilities ”the hottest issue this session.”
Known as House Bill 6, it is controversial because ”there`s much debate as to whether it actually gives local governments more or less control,” Gade said. ”And, of course, many have the `not in my back yard`
attitude.”
However, while fewer communities seem willing to enlarge or accept landfills in their areas, Illinois residents are producing more garbage, making it one of the state`s largest problems. Gade said state residents produce 45.2 million cubic yards of solid waste a year and could fill up the existing landfills in only five years if things continue at their current rate.
To help counteract that, House Bill 6 has a recycling provision, which Gade said was another of Edgar`s environmental priorities. She listed his other top ecological concerns as getting the state`s air in compliance with the new federal Clean Air Act and protecting ground and surface water from pollution.
Gade was invited to speak before the group by state Rep. Lee Daniels
(R-Elmhurst), who organized the session as the first meeting of his own Environmental Advisory Committee.
Chaired by Sally Kirk, director of the Du Page Clean and Beautiful Committee, the advisory panel plans to meet monthly at the Oak Brook Village Hall and includes local business and government officials such as the co-chairmen of the Salt Creek Citizens for Flood Control, Elmhurst Ald.-elect Jerry Wolin and Oak Brook Trustee Lexi Payovich.
”As past president of the National Conference of State Legislators, I think the environment is one of the most important matters we`re dealing with today,” Daniels told the group in his introductory remarks. ”And we need to get local input.”
Gade agreed. She was appointed director of the state EPA in February after serving in Washington as an assistant administrator in the federal EPA. ”The whole focal point in the EPA is shifting,” she said. ”It`s going from doing less hands-on work on the federal level and allowing the states and local areas to take more control.”
She said Edgar has taken the cue and charged ahead with an environmentally aggressive State of the State address that ”told us we need to lose our appetite for single-use products. Edgar followed that up with a February order charging all state employees to reduce the waste they generate by 50 percent by the turn of the century.”
