CLARIFICATION OF TAZEWELL COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT BURNING ORDINANCE

Heritage Lake Association was given a Citation by Tazewell County Health Department following a complaint being filed with the Health Department by a Heritage Lake resident. The Citation was based on the debris being dumped at the Sandy Beach area.

The Health Department admonished HLA concerning the Tazewell County, as well as the EPA, ordinances and codes pertaining to dumping.

Thus, HLA has been forced by the Health Department to stop the HLA membership from dumping any debris on HLA owned property. We realize that using Sandy Beach to dump our leaves and limbs was a great convenience to our membership, and we apologize for the inconvenience. HLA, however, has no choice but to disallow any dumping of any type of debris onto HLA owned properties.

We cannot answer all of your questions but are passing along a couple of the Health Department’s referenced codes, which are set forth below.

The enforcement of Tazewell County’s Health Department codes and ordinances rests exclusively with Tazewell County, and not HLA. HLA will continue to enforce the HLA rules and regulations.

We do, however, want to pass along to our membership the pertinent Health Department codes and ordinances.

Pursuant to the Illinois Environmental Protection Act (415 ILCS 5/21(p)(1), no person shall cause or allow the open dumping of any “waste” in a manner which results in:

  • litter;
  • scavenging;
  • open burning;
  • deposition of waste in standing or flowing waters;
  • proliferation of disease vectors;
  • standing or flowing liquid discharge from the dump site;
  • deposition of:
  • general construction or demolition debris as defined in Section 3.160(a) of this Act; or
  • clean construction or demolition debris as defined in Section 3.16(b) of this Act.

Pursuant to the Tazewell County Ordinance (6 TCC 2-2), no person shall cause, suffer, allow, or permit open burning of refuse composed of animal, fruit, or vegetable matter, garbage, offal, or any other nauseous matter of organic or inorganic matter at any time except within a furnace or incinerator, and then not in a manner which permits the escape of discharge of noxious odors.

Based on HLA’s understanding, HLA members may burn yard waste on that member’s own property.

We hope this helps in answering most of your questions. Since receiving the Health Department Citation, HLA has struggled with this issue and has made every effort to come into compliance with the Tazewell County mandates pertaining to dumping.

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