Champaign County ELUC Meeting – Thursday, June 6

Posted on June 5, 2013 by sutc

When: Thursday, June 6, 6:00pm

Where: Lyle Shields Meeting Room, Brookens Administrative Center, 1776 E. Washington St., Urbana

After tabling it at their last meeting, the Environment and Land Use Committee (ELUC) of the Champaign County Board will consider a resolution opposing water withdrawals from the Salt Fork River for washing coal at Hallador Energy and Sunrise Coal’s proposed Bulldog mine southeast of Homer.

This will be an important meeting with a need for a strong public presence. The link to the agenda is included below:

http://www.co.champaign.il.us/countybd/ELUC/2013/130606agenda.pdf

In April, the News-Gazette reported that Hallador Energy’s Sunrise Coal has approached the Urbana Champaign Sanitary District (UCSD) with a request to guarantee that their Urbana sewage treatment plant will discharge between 325,000 to 540,000 gallons per day that the mine would withdraw from the Salt Fork River to wash coal at their proposed coal mine.

Clean sewage treatment plant effluent from UCSD helps protect the health of the Salt Fork River, particularly during low flow times of the year. After months of deliberation, the Homer Village Board came to a unanimous decision against selling raw water to Sunrise coal, determining that the area’s water resources should not be used to wash coal. Area residents and farmers are concerned that Sunrise’s underground coal mine and surface coal washing and waste disposal will deplete water resources, pollute the Salt Fork River, and damage farmland.

The County Board has a crucial opportunity to protect Champaign County’s clean water and healthy farmland, by voting yes on the resolution opposing water sales to to the proposed coal mine.

TAKE ACTION: Let Your County Board members know you support protecting the Salt Fork River and farmland from coal mine – ask them to vote yes on the resolution!

Environment and Land Use Committee:

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