Commissioners approve PCB cleanup plan

A plan to clean up the three remaining PCB-contaminated sites in Bloomington received approval of the Monroe County Commissioners today.

The county leaders were the last to sign off on the technical document, which lays out details for remedies at spots where the chemicals were dumped years ago. Three other groups — the city of Bloomington, the state of Indiana and the federal government — already gave their approval to the plan.

County attorney Bill Steger said the plan will likely be filed in U.S. District Court early next week. That action will start the clock on a 30-day comment period to the Environmental Protection Agency. After that, the court is expected to issue a final consent decree in the case, he said.

The plan calls for cleaning the three contaminated sites — Neal’s Landfill, Bennett’s Dump and Lemon Lane Landfill — as well as payment of $9.6 million to the U.S. government to cover PCB work costs and damages to natural resources. The money will be paid by CBS, which was held liable for damages caused by Westinghouse Electric Corp. when it operated a capacitor plant in Bloomington that used polychlorinated biphenyls.

Commissioner Iris Kiesling said she was pleased to see the amended consent decree, saying the initial plan to clean up the sites “wasn’t anything at all.”

During public comment, county surveyor Kevin Enright called for a community meeting to update the public on the issue.

“You go to the library and there’s filing cabinets full of papers,” he said, referring to documents pertaining to the issue that are kept there for public perusal. “You just want simple answers. What’s going on here?”

Copies of the nearly 500-page amended consent decree are available for public viewing at the auditor’s office, county legal and the county health department, Steger said.