A case filed by a group opposing the construction of the Superconducting Super Collider in Illinois will have a hearing Monday in the Kane County Courthouse.

Nancy Ebbert, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Energy and Natural Resources, said members of the Citizens Against the Collider Here (CATCH) have filed a lawsuit against the state for not releasing the names and addresses of people whose property might be affected by the construction of the collider.

Ebbert said the group is claiming Freedom of Information Act rights, which require the state to release the information, and said the group claims the public has a right to know whose property might be affected. The information act does have an exclusion for real estate confidentiality, she said.

Ebbert said, “The state has written letters to each of the landowners twice. They are not keeping it (construction) a secret from them.”

Linda Wawzenski, deputy chief of the civil division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said every state that is in competition to host the collider is required to file an Environmental Impact Statement which states the effect the collider would have on potential site areas.

Edward Mallek, an attorney representing CATCH, said the EIS draft released by the Department of Energy “sorely underestimated” the number of people who could be affected by the construction of the collider, and the states’ letters were based on the 1986 tax maps.

“What is happening is that a lot of Kane County farmland has turned residential,” Mallek said. He said that in the 1987 estimate there were “500 additional parcels.”

The draft of the impact statement “is sorely defective in its present form,” Mallek said. Ebbert said that on June 14, CATCH filed a law suit against the federal government, claiming the public did not receive enough notice before the first public comment session on the impact statement draft.

U.S. District Judge James Holderman dismissed the lawsuit against the government on Sept. 2 after deciding that CATCH did not “state a claim and there was no evidence that any rules had been broken (by ENR),” Ebbert said. Mallek said CATCH had wanted to gain an extension on the amount of time allotted to prepare for the comment session.

Wawzenski said the suit was dismissed because CATCH “filed in the midst of the administrative process. The federal court does not have jurisdiction until they (DOE) come up with a final statement.”

Ebbert said, “We (ENR) also expect this (state) case will be dismissed. Mallek said the second public comment session on the impact statement draft will be held on Oct. 6 and 7 at Waubonsee Valley High School in Aurora.