Wiser environmental protection
I nstead of taking a combative approach, the Will County Environmental Network is using a calmer tactic, and it could mean protecting Joliet's drinking water.
Network members have taken part in an environmental roundtable with representatives from about 20 state and local public and private agencies including CenterPoint Properties, the city of Joliet, Citizens Against Ruining the Environment, Midwest Generation, Waste Management, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and County Executive Larry Walsh.
Even with these diverse groups with varied interests, participants are finding common ground and a willingness to work together.
CenterPoint and its ongoing development at the south end of Joliet is one of the main areas of discussion, said Network President Mary Baskerville.
"There is grassroots and community participation," said Baskerville. "Industry has sat in on this. The companies like the idea of participating."
One area that CenterPoint has been willing to address is the topography of the 3,300-acre site. A recent study showed the presence of many karsts, or sinkholes, on the CenterPoint property.
A sinkhole, said Samuel Panno, a senior geochemist for the Illinois State Geological Survey, "represents a fast-track opening that can effectively 'inject' contaminated surface water directly into groundwater with no physical, chemical or biological cleansing that occurs prior to surface water entering most aquifers."
Joliet's city drinking water comes from this aquifer. What Panno refers to is that on the CenterPoint property a leak of diesel fuel or sulfuric acid, if near a sinkhole, could result in contamination of the city's water supply.
In retrospect, the Joliet City Council, which put the CenterPoint project onto a fast track to passage last year, should have looked closer at the potential environmental impacts instead of being blinded by the dollars that would come from the development.
But Baskerville and the Network want to address the future by working together in the present. A more detailed study on the sinkholes has been requested by Panno, and Walsh said he supports the proposal.
The Network's hope is that the types of developments at CenterPoint will be adjusted near the sinkholes to have either no development or projects that would less likely endanger the aquifer.
Members of the Will County Environmental Network deserve praise for working and not fighting with CenterPoint on these important concerns. CenterPoint officials also should be credited for their willingness to sit, discuss these matters and hopefully make the proper revisions needed to protect Joliet's drinking water.
This environmental roundtable already is a success, and a blueprint that should be followed by other groups that face their own environmental challenges.
