State Sen. Patrick Welch, D-Peru, attacked an upcoming bill giving city governments negotiating rights for waste disposal in an appearance at NIU’s recycling center.

Welch, the Senate Energy and Environmental Committee chairman, said the House Bill 4013 would leave small towns open to exploitation from big waste disposal companies. Waste management companies would entice city governments with money in return for putting a landfill there against the will of the people, he said.

In Marseilles, Illinois, Welch said, a company put up $7 million for the city to annex a gravel pit for their landfill. The local community had to raise $150,000 to fight the company in court, he said.

“We want to emphasize garbage reduction at the source. This bill doesn’t encourage recycling,” Welch said.

Carolyn Raffensperger, the Sierra Club Illinois Field Representative, said the bill created a way for Chicago to impose their garbage on other communities.

Municipal garbage disposal plans need to take into account more than their own town, Raffensperger said. Marseilles is upriver from other communities and leakage from that landfill could easily pollute the Illinois river and downstream communities, she said.

Both Welch and Raffensperger encourage the citizens of the community to oppose the House bill and to write their politicians about it. Raffensperger said people need to be more active since they are usually ahead of their legislators regarding environmental issues.

The House environmental committee chairman supports the bill and says it gives more local environmental control to the people. State Rep. Myron Kulas, D-Chicago, said if a local unit of government wants to make a contract with a waste management company, “that’s up to them.”

“Here I thought Welch was for local control,” Kulas said.

Kulas said he was frustrated because he worked on this bill for two years, only to have many environmental groups disapprove of it. Kulas said it is “narrow minded” to think waste problems can be totally solved through source reduction and recycling. New landfills are needed because the present ones are not only full but are inadequately lined, he said.

Welch’s Republican opponent Nancy Beasley said she also was against the House bill but claimed she would be better able to defeat it. The bill was mainly supported by Chicago Democrats who want to do something about their own waste, she said.

“Who is going to best be able to stand up to (Senate President) Phil Rock?” she said, implying that Welch’s ties to his party would create a conflict of interest.

Beasley also downplayed the Sierra Club’s endorsement of Welch by saying Political Action Committees usually endorse incumbents. “They don’t want to ruffle Phil Rock’s feathers,” she said.