I-TAN Alert

Clean Water vs. Hogs Bill 1707

May 10th, 1998

These Alerts are written to be listened to over the telephone, and have an intentional degree of repetition. Until someone volunteers to edit them for visual presentation, please simply ignore the repetition. This alert was written by Frank Orto of the River Prairie Group, and founder of the I-TAN network.

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Here is the I-TAN Action Alert, as of May 10, 1998, which is the seventh activation of I-TAN for the 1998 calendar year. The last I-TAN activation was on April 13, 1998.

ALERT
You will need to make two phone calls.
For the first phone call, please call your Illinois State Representative before Tuesday, May 12 and ask him or her to support Senate Bill 1707 as currently amended. Senate Bill 1707 with the current pro-environmental amendments attached will help to keep hog waste out of Illinois' waters. The Illinois State House of Representatives is expected to vote on Senate Bill 1707 as currently amended on Tuesday morning, May 12, 1998. Please call your Illinois State Representative before Tuesday, May 12.
For your second phone call, please call your Illinois State Senator and ask him or her to support and vote yes on Senate Bill 1707 as currently amended. The Illinois State Senate will vote on Senate Bill 1707 sometime after Tuesday, May 12 after the Illinois State House of Representatives votes on this bill.
You can reach your Illinois State Representative and your Illinois State Senator in Springfield by calling 217-782-2000, and then asking for your state representative or state senator by name.
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EXPLANATION
Your Illinois State Legislators have been debating an issue of major environmental importance in rural Illinois - the threat that new massive hog confinement factories pose to our Illinois' rivers, lakes, and streams. These facilities are such a big threat because hogs produce so much waste, and because these new factories confine so many hogs - thousands - into small areas. Hogs produce 2-3 times as much waste as a human, so the result is massive amounts of manure that can seriously degrade rivers and streams and cause fish kills if it gets in to the water. If you can imagine, a 10,000 hog facility produces as much waste as a city with 25,000 people, and yet the hog factory does not have to have a sewage treatment plant like the city does.
The Sierra Club is supporting Senate Bill 1707 as currently amended. Originally , the Sierra Club was opposed to Senate Bill 1707, but pro-environmental forces were successful this past week to amend Senate Bill 1707 to make this bill a pro -environmental bill. The current pro-environmental amendment, supported by the Sierra Club, and attached to the Senate Bill 1707 passed during a roll call vote on the Illinois House Floor by just ONE vote. Now the entire bill, Senate Bill 1707, as currently amended, will be voted on by the entire Illinois House of Representatives this Tuesday morning, May 12. While it is expected that Senate Bill 1707 will pass since the pro-environmental amendment passed by one vote, we need to call our Illinois State Representatives and make certain that they vote yes on Senate Bill 1707 as currently amended. One vote is a narrow margin of victory.
After Tuesday's vote in the Illinois House of Representatives, Senate Bill 1707 will be returned to the Illinois State Senate. The Illinois State Senate must vote again on Senate Bill 1707 since the House will have amended it. This Illinois State Senate vote will occur fairly quickly. Thus, calls to our Illinois State Senators to support Senate Bill 1707 as amended are needed now.
Senate Bill 1707 as currently amended contains several important safeguards against hog waste getting in to our waterways. First, Senate Bill 1707 as currently amended would ban hog factories in areas where they are likely to pollute the water - specifically in flood plains, and in areas where groundwater is likely to be polluted. Second, Senate Bill 1707 as currently amended would limit the amount of manure that can be dumped on farm fields. This is important because the way hog factories get rid of all the waste is to dump it on farm fields. This can be OK in small amounts, but if too much is dumped on it washes off into river s and streams when it rains. Finally, it makes sure that waste storage pits or lagoons are built right so they don't leak.
You can reach your Illinois State Representative and your Illinois State Senator by calling the Capitol Switchboard during business hours at 217-782-2000, and asking for your Illinois State Representative and/or Illinois State Senator's office.

This concludes the I-TAN Action Alert.

Thanks for calling the Sierra Club's Illinois Telephone Activist Network, I-TAN, hosted by the Woods & Wetlands Group.

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Send all comments concerning this action alert to the attention of Jack Darin at illinois.chapter@sierraclub.org or call 312-251-1680.
 

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