CLINTON - A Clinton group opposed to the storage of toxic chemicals at Clinton Landfill has accused the site's owner of wrongly seeking to reclassify a type of hazardous waste so it can be buried there and at a site near Hopedale.

Peoria Disposal Co., parent company of Area Disposal Inc., has applied to the Illinois Pollution Control Board for permission to process a hazardous waste - electric arc furnace dust - and store what it says is the less-toxic end product.

There will be a public hearing Aug. 18 in Peoria on the proposal.

Matt Varble, President of Clinton-based WATCH (We're Against Toxic Chemicals) rejects the company's claim that the final product is safe enough for storage at the Clinton Landfill.

"These are very hazardous chemicals," Varble said, arguing "there is no long-term study or proof that this treatment process is harmless."

Peoria Disposal Vice President Chris Coulter said the treatment process has worked successfully for 15 years and has the approval of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

"Once it is treated, it is tested and the chemicals must test at levels even below the standards set for our storage at our landfills," Coulter said.

The waste in question comes from steel mills. Varble said it contains several metals and compounds that are considered highly toxic, including dioxin, lead, zinc, cadmium, arsenic, mercury and hexavalent chromium.

The company previously has not handled this waste process before.

If it wins state approval, it plans to store the end product at a facility near Hopedale.

The company also wants the option of storing it at Clinton at some future date, "but more than likely, this waste will never go to Clinton," he said.

Officials at the Illinois Pollution Control Board said the application to store wastes after the treatment process was filed April 25. On June 12, the Illinois EPA filed papers indicating the request was likely to be accepted but that the agency had some minor concerns about assumptions used in the analysis of the treatment.

"We addressed those concerns and feel very comfortable with this application," Coulter said.

The Illinois Pollution Control Board will have a public hearing on the matter at 3 p.m. Aug. 18 at Peoria's Public Library, 107 N.E. Monroe St., Peoria.

Varble says his group plans to show up in large numbers.

"A favorable decision by the board to reclassify the treated waste would allow it to be disposed of at regular landfill sites, which typically store only household and municipal wastes," Varble said. "We need to have as many people as possible attend this hearing to demonstrate the concerns we have as a community over permanently storing this toxic and lethal waste over our water supply."

Clinton Landfill is above the Mahomet Aquifer, a source of drinking water for several area communities.

Varble started his group after Peoria Disposal Co. applied for a permit to store wastes with a PCB concentration of greater than 50 parts per million at Clinton Landfill. PCBs are a group of toxic carcinogenic, organic compounds used in a variety of industrial processes. That permit review continues.