As state environmental officials ponder significantly changing the way decisions about sewer services are made, anxious developers and municipal officials packed a hearing room Wednesday to try to determine what the proposal could mean for them.
A plan under consideration by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency would remove the agency from crucial parts of the process that determines who can install new sewer lines and where–two crucial questions along the edges of rapid suburban development.
Some local officials cheered the proposed change to the agency’s rules, saying the state EPA should not be involved in local battles concerning development and growth.
Others who already have made costly investments based on the old set of rules are worried about whether a change will devalue their investments.
State EPA officials are considering holding more hearings. They also are accepting written submissions until Aug. 21.
A final decision will be rendered by Jim Park, chief of the state EPA’s Bureau of Water, probably this fall, according to Rick Mollahan, who is in charge of water quality management planning for the agency.
For years, the state EPA has helped to decide which communities would provide sewer services to developing areas.
But some communities used the process to stake out new
territory for their municipal boundaries.
If unincorporated land fell into a community’s state-designated planning area–especially if a shopping mall or a subdivision was scheduled to be built there–local officials often reasoned that it belonged within their corporate limits too.
State EPA officials often found themselves in the middle of local land disputes.
Now the state EPA wants out of the business of refereeing these fights. The state wants to turn over the responsibility to a new layer of bureaucracy made up of local officials.
Most local officials at Wednesday’s hearing gave the state’s proposal mixed reviews. But Plano Mayor Sue Nesson said she would be happy to see the state EPA butt out of local matters.
“The EPA has been used to establish corporate boundaries,” said Nesson, whose village has been embroiled in a land fight with nearby Sandwich that involved the state agency. “It has caused a great deal of bad feelings between the communities.”
