EPA holds hearing on Joliet Township coal ash site

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public hearing Wednesday in Joliet on the proposed future handling of coal ash in the Lincoln Stone Quarry.

The Joliet Township quarry was used for decades as a dumping area for the Joliet coal-fired power plant operated at one time by ComEd and later by Midwest Generation. The plant at 1800 Channahon Road most recently was operated as a natural gas facility by NRG, which shut it down in 2023, according to an IEPA fact sheet on the matter.

The public hearing will be at 6 p.m. at Joliet Junior College’s Weitendorf Agricultural Education Center, located at 17840 W Laraway Road, in Joliet.

The pending permit, which would allow Midwest Generation to maintain the site as a coal combustion residual impoundment, according to the IEPA fact sheet. Impoundment would basically cap the quarry.

The Lincoln Stone Quarry has been used as a landfill since 1962 and has been used for the dumping of coal until 2019, according to the IEPA.

The Will County-based Citizens Against Ruining the Environment (CARE) is urging the public to attend the hearing and oppose the permit.

The impoundment permit “would allow contaminants to continue leaching into groundwater,” CARE said in its statement. “A bond must be created that would pay for complete remediation of this toxic contamination.”

The comment period on the proposed permit ends on Aug. 15.

More For further information on the draft permit, please call Derek Rompot by phone at 217/782-0610 or by email at Derek.Rompot@illinois.gov.