What do auto emissions, ZIP codes and leaves have in common in Kane County? Property owners may find out if a proposed open-burning ordinance goes into effect.
The County Board’s Clean Air Committee Tuesday recommended passage of an ordinance that would ban leaf burning in all ZIP codes where auto-emission testing is required.
Under the proposed ordinance, leaf burning would be permitted in certain months and times over the next two years, with a total ban going into effect as of Jan. 1, 2003.
Primarily affected would be six townships in the eastern side of the county: Aurora, Batavia, Dundee, Elgin, Geneva and St. Charles, with some spillover into Blackberry, Plato, Rutland and Sugar Grove.
“If you have to have your car tested for emission control, you are affected by the ordinance,” said Jan Carlson, a member of the Clean Air Committee.
The ban could be expanded if the Environmental Protection Agency extends emission testing, he noted.
The committee’s chairman, Jim Mitchell, said the proposed ordinance next will be reviewed by the County Board’s Executive Committee. If moved forward, it would go before the County Board as early as its February meeting, he added.
Another committee member, Bill Wyatt, said he was confident that the townships support the ban and will help in educating the public about it.
The proposed ordinance drew mixed reviews from residents in attendance.
Angela Moser, whose family suffers from asthma and related allergies, brought pillows for committee members to smother their faces and try breathing.
“That’s what it’s like for us to breathe,” she said as she sought information on how the burning ban would be enforced.
Enforcement would be the responsibility of the police departments in the affected villages and cities and the county sheriff in unincorporated areas, said Carlson.
“I have no problem with a ban, but before you ban, why not give the majority of us who try to obey the laws a chance before you flat-out tell us we cannot do this anymore?” said Ellen Nottke of Batavia Township and a leader of Leaf Us Alone, a group opposing the ban. She called the proposal an example of “big government … stepping in where it’s not needed.”
“Nobody has given us a way to dispose of leaves,” said Bill Caputo, who said he has cut down 20 of 40 trees on his property to relieve the problem there. Citing Oak Park and other communities that vacuum or pick up leaves swept to the curb, he urged the committee “to give us a way to get rid of them and I’ll be all for it.”
Kay Catlin, a St. Charles resident and a member of the county Board of Health’s Medical Advisory Committee, said she thought the proposed ordinance was a “good compromise” because it addresses the “problem where it exists.”
The proposed ordinance initially would allow leaf burning between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on sunny, calm days from April 1 to May 1 and Oct. 15 to Dec. 15 for the next two years.
