Jul 11 2008
‘Not in My Backyard’ Cry Ruins America
The Illinois Pollution Control Board voted yesterday to deny the appeal of Williamson County to revoke a permit to build a landfill there.
The permits allows the construction of the Marion Ridge landfill and the application process has lasted just about 12 years. Yup, I said years. Over the last decade plus, various developers have attempted to convert the old strip mines west of the city of Marion into a lanfill.
At first,t eh plan was a full-fledged landfill, complete with interstate waste and whatever else the developer could find to dump there. A coalition of regional environmentalists fought it and fought hard.At the time, I visited another of the developer’s alndfills to evalaute first personw hat the site might look like.
See the major objections to the landfill in Marion seems to be that it sits almost directly adjacent to a mall and a golf course with the mandatory upper class subdivision attached. Rightfully so, people are concerned about property values.
But, having visited the landfill developer’s Chicago operation, I can say that the threat of a landfill is the mental image it creates, not the current and modern operations. The landfill was not swarming with rats or creating a neighborhood-wide stentch. In fact, that landfill was only noticeable from the clouds of construction dust it created when covering the landfill each night. And that was state of the art a decade ago. Imagine how much mroe things have progressed.
I too would like to see a world where landfill’s aren’t encessary, but Williamson County and Marion aren’t willing to take the steps necessary to make theat happen. They do not have mandatory recycling or even easy access to voluntary recycling. Right now, people who want to recycle still have to drive their recyclables to the recycling center.
The truth be told, this proposed lanfill probably won’t be all that bad, The permit calls for the landfillt o handle construction wastes only. No rotting garbage, no contaminated needle. But the people of the Kokepelli subdivision and the Illinois Centre mall still scream “Not in my backyard!”
Unfortuantely, this sort of short-sighted mentality is prevalent in America today. Nobody wants the power plant, nuclear or otherwise, in their neighborhood. Wind turbines, for renewable energy development, are loud and unsightly. And, god forbid that we drill for oil in any place that might disturb the view. I can only guess that oil wells in the middle of corn fields in Illinois, Kansas, Texas and other parts of the country are okay because corn fields are ugly anyway.
Ultimately, the point is that no one wants to have these necessary constrution projects in their neighborhoods, but everyone wants to benefit from them. No one wants a landfill, but people keep throwing stuff away. No one wants to drill in ANWAR, but everyone still wants to drive a car.
This ultimate selfishness of the American people is now biting us in the wallet and soon, as the stresses on our power grid become too much, will bite us there too. It’s time to stop being so caught up in this “Not in my backyard” mantra.
Fine, Williamson County, if you don’t want the landfill, tell us where we should put it and make sure before you do that the people there will be happy to take your trash as well.
