Renner Barsella, renner.barsella@sierraclub.org, 217-390-9394
PEKIN, IL -- Wednesday, September 19, 2018, Governor Rauner’s Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) will hold a public hearing to receive comments regarding an operating permit for Dynegy-Vistra’s E.D. Edwards coal-fired power plant near Bartonville. The IEPA issued an initial draft “Title V” Operating Permit for E.D. Edwards in 2005. However, the permit was then “stayed” and has not become effective due to the State’s administrative review process; in other words, since 1990 the Edwards coal plant has never received a finalized Title V operating permit as required under the Federal Clean Air Act.
In 2013 public health and environmental organizations filed a lawsuit for thousands of violations of the Clean Air Act at the E.D. Edwards plant between 2008 and 2013. In 2016, a Federal judge ruled that indeed the plant had violated the Clean Air Act thousands of times. Since then the plant has continued to exceed pollution limits thousands of times from 2014 forward. These violations resulted in pollution levels unsafe for human health. Instead of holding past and present owners of the plant accountable under Federal and Illinois law, the IEPA and the Pollution Control Board (PCB) granted these corporations, who lacked lawful operating permits, pollution bailouts in 2012 and 2013. IEPA proposed yet another bailout in a 2017 rule that is currently under review at the PCB with a decision possible in early October.
What: Residents and experts voice concerns at hearing about new Clean Air Act violations and lack of effective permit, now 20 years overdue
When: September 19, 7:00 pm CST
Where: Miller Senior Citizens Center, 551 S 14th St, Pekin, IL 61554, USA
Who: Local impacted residents and legal/pollution experts will be available for media at the time of the event
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