Over the last two years, David Newberg (’75) and Karle Koritz (’99) have worked together to tackle many issues facing DeWitt County – Newberg as a member of the DeWitt County Board and Koritz as the DeWitt County State’s Attorney. In December 2014, Koritz was appointed Circuit Judge and Newberg was elected Chairman of the DeWitt County Board by his fellow board members. In just four short months, Newberg helmed the Board through difficult negotiations to settle one of the most controversial issues facing Central Illinois over the last 7 years – the protection of the Mahomet Aquifer. “Thanks in large part to David’s leadership and passion,” Judge Koritz writes, “there will be no hazardous PCB waste stored over the Mahomet Aquifer, the primary source of drinking water for over 750,000 citizens in Central Illinois.” The DeWitt County Board and Clinton Landfill, Inc. agreed in April to restructure their host agreement in exchange for the Landfill permanently withdrawing their permit applications seeking to store hazardous PCB waste over the Mahomet Aquifer. The deal concludes almost a decade of contentious litigation involving the Attorney General’s Office, the Governor’s office, the EPA, the DeWitt County Board, the Landfill, and dozens of municipalities and environmental protection groups.
You may read further about this matter in the following article: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2015-04-22/plans-protect-mahomet-aquifer-moving-foward.html