Consent Decree Parties (CDP) Information Meeting of May 14, 1996

Here are some informal notes taken at the Consent Decree Parties Information Meeting of May 14, 1996, by Mitch Rice of Copa
The purpose of the meeting was to keep the public informed of happenings in regards to the schedule developed by the Consent Decree Parties as per the instructions of Judge Dillon.
The first presentation was by John Langley of the City of Bloomington. He presented an overview of the situation at Winston-Thomas, where the most recent escapes of pcbs occured. He told of the abandoned pipes that rusted and broke, releasing the contaminated water into a corridor below grade. Nearly 88,000 gallons have be pumped out and treated with sand and carbon filtering. There is a 4 foot lateral crack in one of the digester tanks, though no immediate danger is forseen from this crack. There has been some failure in the berm surrounding the lagoon, there is now monthly inspection of the berm.

Dan Hopkins presented the Consent Decree Parties' Schedule as filed with the Court. He noted the overlapping timelines of the work on the various sites, and stated the two sites now being investigated are Winston Thomas and Lemon Lane Landfill.

John Langley went over the land use scenerios for both Winston Thomas and Lemon Lane. The most likely future land use for the two sites are as business parks, and in the case of Winston Thomas, possibly a commercial shopping area. Mr. Langley was quick to point out that no zoning or executive decisions had been made towards this end.

Dan Hopkins presented information about Winston Thomas and Lemon Lane. As to Winston Thomas he stated that a sampling plan was needed to detirmine what remediations are necessary. A risk asessment is needed, and so ground water and well water need to be studied. At Lemon Lane extensive well water tests have been done that indicate little seepage into the wells near Lemon Lane. The problem seems to be concentrated at the Illinois Central Springs, where in high flow periods, large amounts of PCBs are flushed from the system, and drain into Clear Creek. The catchment area around the IC Springs needs study so that a way to reduce the peaks of flow during heavy rainfall can be investigated, making the job of treating this water feasable. Hot spot remediation and capping is the only method of dealing with the landfill material currently being considered.

Dottie Alkie from Wesinghouse talked about how the screening of possible alternative methods is to be accomplished. First she listed all the possiblities for remediation. These were:

No Action
On site consolidation and containment
Ground and surface water treatment
Offsite Landfilling
Insitu Bioremediation
Thermal Techniques
Chemical Techniques
Combination of Technologies
Of these, the No Action, Bioremdiation, Thermal and Chemical Alternatives were eliminated for both sites. This leaves as possibilities: Consolidation, Water treatment, and Offsite landfilling. Most likely a combination of these three will be used on both sites. What is the best technology for any situation will depend on the site characterization being carried out. Lemon Lane may require more, extended capping, and a water treatment plant at the Illinois Central Spring.

She presented the steps involved in screening alternatives to be used in the remediation of Lemon Lane and Winston Thomas.

A. Effectiveness-

  1. Technical Feasability
  2. Proven at full scale on a similar or the same matrix <\ul> B. Economic Feasability/Cost

    C. Administrative Considerations

    The meeting ended with a question and answer period. Charlotte Zietlow asked that the EPA show good faith and perform an RIFS, and Mike Baker of COPA presented a letter formally asking the EPA for an RIFS. Bill Hayden of the Sierra Club asked that something be done about the continuing leakage to the environment at the IC Springs.

    Three sheets were handed out, one a map of the Lemon Lane area, one of Wintson Thomas, and the Schedule for cleanup of the sites. I have placed these on the COPA BBS as ll.gif (Lemon Lane map), wt.gif (Wintston Thomas map) and sched.gif (CDP Cleanup Schedule). The schedule is a very large graphic file (400K), download it when you have plenty of time! (I will try to copy this into a text file soon - Mitch) At the meeting COPA delivered a letter to the EPA asking for an RI/FS. Here is the EPA's rationale (from 1990) for the lack of an RIFS.

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