Livestock producers in Illinois oppose a regulation that would require feedlots to register with the state, but a legislative panel appears poised to approve the regulation. The proposal is part of a series of changes to how Illinois regulates confined animal feeding operations, known as CAFOs, after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ordered changes in […]
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
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Neighbors must pay damages for delaying hog shed
An appellate court in Springfield says opponents of a pig farm outside Rochester must pay for delaying the project. However, neither side is overly happy with the outcome. “It’s a mixed bag,” says Springfield attorney Thomas Immel. His client, Rochester pig farmer Robert Young, won a $24,000 award of damages earlier this month – far […]
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IEPA withdraws Tenaska Taylorville permit
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency withdrew a pollution permit last week for a proposed power plant in Taylorville after federal regulators asked the state to allow a controversial “clean coal” technology. IEPA previously issued a permit to Nebraska-based power company Tenaska allowing the company to operate its Taylorville Energy Center project as a natural gas […]
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Honor system for air pollution?
As state regulators prepare to issue a permit for a state-of-the-art “clean coal” plant planned for Taylorville, one environmental group criticizes the proposed permit for not specifically requiring carbon capture technology. The Taylorville Energy Center project, planned by Omaha, Neb.-based Tenaska, Inc., would be the first power plant of its kind to capture a significant […]
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The flushing factor
Poor water quality plagues two Springfield streams, and part of the problem is the Springfield Metro Sanitary District, according to a recent study measuring fecal coliform bacteria, present in both human and animal waste, in Spring and Sugar creeks. The district occasionally sends untreated wastewater into the two streams at eight different points. As a […]
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Coal ash disposal draws ire
Strolling along Macoupin Creek in October, environmentalists observed in the middle of the day flowing water the color of a moonless night sky. While the samples they grabbed weren’t analyzed at a lab, Mary Ellen DeClue, of Citizens Against Longwall Mining, is convinced she knows why the water was black – it had been contaminated […]
