Business Owners Fined for Illegal Dumping Near Lynwood


Recently, a Cook County judge fined two Orland Park business owners and their companies $1.8 million in penalties for illegally dumping a mountain of construction debris at an unpermitted site near Lynwood, according to a press release from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigans office.

On Feb. 4, Judge Richard Billik handed down a decision that orders John Einoder and Janice Einoder to pay civil penalties of $500,000 and $50,000 respectively and assessed civil penalties of $750,000 against Tri-State Industries, Inc., as well as $500,000 against J.T. Einoder, Inc., the businesses owned and operated by the Einoders.

In June 2009, Judge Billik ruled that all of the defendants were responsible for discarding construction and demolition waste at a site neighboring property owned by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.

The ruling is a welcome rebuke of the Einoders prolonged disregard for the law on open dumping, stated Attorney General Madigan in the release. Justice was a long time coming in this case, but the people of this area now no longer will contend with a growing mountain of construction debris and waste in their community.

According to Illinois law, Section 3.300 of the Act, 415 ILCS 5/3.300 (2006), "open dumping is defined as the consolidation of refuse from one or more sources at a disposal site that does not fulfill the requirements of a sanitary landfill, says Scott Mulford press spokesman for the Attorney Generals office.

J.T. Einoder, Inc. and Tri-State Industries were initially named in a seven-count suit filed by the Attorney Generals office in July 2000. John Einoder and Janice Einoderindividually were later added as defendants in the case.

The Citizen asked Mulford when the illegal dumping occurred and a response was not given by deadline.

The release also informs that Madigans office and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) have pursued the case for more than a decade after initial assessments in 1998 and 1999 revealed rip rap, construction and demolition waste at the 40-acre former sand pit located two miles east of Interstate 94 near Route 30 in unincorporated Lynwood.

In addition to the civil penalties, Judge Billik mandated the removal to a permitted landfill of all waste above ground level, monitoring of groundwater at the site and reimbursing IEPA for costs associated with the Agencys omission.

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