Kerr-McGee completes site cleanup
The U.S. EPA Region 5 said on July 15 that a U.S.$33-million cleanup of radioactively contaminated soil at Reed-Keppler Park (West Chicago, IL) is complete.
The cleanup, conducted by Kerr-McGee Chemical LLC, with oversight by the EPA and other agencies, including Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety (IDNS) and Illinois EPA, addressed an 11-acre portion of the 100-acre park.
The cleanup, over the course of three-and-a-half construction seasons, included excavation of 114,600 cu yds of contaminated soil, which was shipped to a radioactive materials disposal facility in Utah.
The contamination removed harkens to the Lindsay Light & Chemical Co.'s Rare Earths Facility, which processed ore, generated thorium mill tailings—a sand-like waste material between the mid-1930s and the mid-1960s. Some of these materials were used as fill in low-lying areas or construction projects in the West Chicago area, including Reed-Keppler Park, which then was used as a local dumping site.
Operations at the Rare Earths Facility ceased in 1973. (That property is currently being cleaned up under the regulatory oversight of the IDNS.) Kerr-McGee acquired the Rare Earths Facility in 1967. Potentially harmful levels of radiation at the park were first detected in 1976.
The Reed-Keppler Park site was added to the Superfund National Priorities List in 1990. Comprehensive EPA investigations and engineering studies began in 1992. Kerr-McGee began excavating contaminated materials in the spring of 1997 under a unilateral administrative order.
The restoration of site landscaping is nearly complete and is proceeding under an agreement between West Chicago, Kerr-McGee and the West Chicago Park District.
Reed-Keppler Park is one of 4 related Superfund sites in West Chicago. Cleanup work by Kerr-McGee at the residential areas site began in 1995
West Chicago and DuPage County officials reportedly are working with Kerr-McGee to reach a voluntary agreement for cleanup of the other two sites, Kress Creek and the Sewage Treatment Plant, with a tentative start-date goal of 2001.
Contact: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, David Seely. Tel: 312-886-7058.
Edited by Paul Hersch