OAKWOOD — It’s been two years since a consent order was approved in Vermilion County Circuit Court clearing the way for the removal of dangerous coal-ash pits from along the Middle Fork of the Vermilion River.
It was expected it could be 10 years or more before the process would be completed and the Middle Fork, Illinois’ only nationally designated Wild and Scenic River, is considered safe from pollution.
However, some environmental groups are concerned with a recent announcement by Lee Zeldin, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, of plans to roll back 31 public health and safety regulations and initiatives that are backed by science and the law.
“These safeguards help make communities cleaner, healthier and safer,” Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, said in a statement released in response. “They are putting lives and livelihoods at risk so that the fossil-fuel and chemical industries don’t have to control their pollution, which ignores the very science Administrator Zeldin said he would listen to. Should the EPA undo settled law and irrefutable facts, we expect to see this administration in court.”
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