Editor’s note: This article is a part of The Daily Illini’s Semester in Review issue. Regular publication will resume Friday, Jan. 11.

Clinton Landfill’s request for a permit from the EPA to dump polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, at its site in Clinton, Ill., located directly above a major regional water source, has been a hotly debated topic this year. The aquifer is a water source to about 750,000 residents. The request is still undergoing review.

“(The company) hustled the process along so quickly, people didn’t realize there was a public comment opportunity until it had closed,” Champaign Mayor Don Gerard said in October.

Although the chemical waste landfill would be lined with a triple layer of plastic liner to separate it from the ground, opponents are concerned that accidental leakage of PCBs — which the U.S. EPA designates a “probable carcinogen” — could endanger the aquifer.

A coalition — made up of the cities of Champaign, Urbana and Decatur, the village of Savoy, the town of Normal and the University — recently submitted an application to the EPA to request that the nearby Mahomet Aquifer receive sole-source designation. Such designation which would mean that it supplies 50 percent or more of the drinking water for this service area with no available alternatives in the case of contamination, according the EPA’s website.

The designation would add to the overview necessary for any project planned over the aquifer, which received federal funds.

All members of the coalition shared in paying for the about $55,000 cost of applying.

Many of these local governments and more have already voiced support for carrying out legal action if the landfill is to receive its permit.

With a bill footed by Champaign, Urbana, Normal, Bloomington, Savoy, Piatt County and Champaign County, the group has already brought in two attorneys in preparation for such a lawsuit.

“We’re hopeful of course that they don’t approve it, and that’ll end that, but if they do, we’re preparing for possible litigation,” said Joe Hooker, Champaign assistant city attorney, at a townhall meeting in May.

Alan Kurtz, chair of the environment and land use committee for the Champaign County Board, said the board thinks the risk of drinking-water contamination is high.

“Guaranteeing that this can never leak is being less than ingenuous,” Kurtz said in January. “(There are) 750,000 people who take their drinking water from the Mahomet Aquifer and only the Mahomet Aquifer — we can’t take the risk that something that could pollute that water.”

The Illinois EPA has said PCB waste in the Clinton landfill would not jeopardize the drinking-water supply. Stan Black, community relation coordinator for the Illinois EPA, said the landfill holding the waste would have a special system to prevent unknown leakage.

“The landfills are required to have a large number of monitoring wells all surrounding the landfill,” Black said in January. “Those are monitored periodically, and we get reports on those. We would know if there was any kind of release that could possibly be threatening the surrounding private wells as well as the public wells, and there is no such threat.”

It is not clear how much more time the EPA will need before coming to a decision. If sole-source designation is received, the aquifer would be the first in the state.