When Diane Detmer bought a newly built home in Carpentersville’s Oak Meadows subdivision in 1995, concerns about air pollution and ground water contamination were not among the issues she ever expected to tackle.
The cleanup of a toxic chemical spill at a former Rockwell International manufacturing plant, across the street, has changed all that.
Now, in addition to having questions about air pollution and home values, Detmer wonders why she was never told about the spill when she moved into the development even though the event took place more than a decade ago.
“I was surprised and concerned when I found out,” said Detmer, who moved to Carpentersville from Wisconsin.
And as Detmer and her fiance, Dennis Anderson, discussed the issue, they also wanted to know whether emissions released into the air during the cleanup would further spread the contamination.
It is the same question the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency is pondering as it helps oversee the cleanup of the toxic spill, which was found in 1986 after authorities rescued two workers trapped in a leaking underground storage tank that contained industrial solvents.
Currently no data are available to indicate how much air pollution will be created when soil and ground-water treatment begins. But Rockwell, Clayton Environmental Consultants Inc., the firm overseeing the cleanup, and the EPA are working with computer models and will be testing concentration levels at the site to see if any such contamination is a problem.
“We will be looking at whether there is any possible threat to the public from the emissions,” said Stan Black of the EPA. “If there is any threat, we’ll want them to put in carbon filtration units to remove chemicals. We’re looking at it very carefully.”
Rockwell owned the valve manufacturing plant at the time the spill was discovered. When Rockwell sold the property to McCanna Inc., a valve manufacturer, in 1989, Rockwell retained responsibility for the cleanup.
The 53-home Oak Meadows subdivision was developed in 1989, three years after the spill was discovered. It is located less than two blocks from the site of the spill.
Many residents who purchased homes in the subdivision recently said they knew of the odor from a nearby paint factory, but were never notified about the chemical spill at Rockwell.
“I probably wouldn’t have bought a home here,” said Richard Aguiniga, who has lived in Oak Meadows for four years. “At least they’re trying (to clean it up), but this should’ve been brought to our attention.”
Currently, there is both soil and ground-water contamination from the spill, but the only affected soil is on the site of the plant.
Chemicals were found in an aquifer, in the “old town” neighborhood west of the plant, in an area stretching about eight blocks to the Fox River. The highest concentration of contamination is along Livingston, Brook, Charles and California Streets, and that is also where streets will be torn up and a ground-water recovery system will be installed.
The contamination, however, is 14 feet underground and authorities contend that drinking water is not affected, unless people are drawing water from their own wells.
Rockwell and Clayton officials said the system that will be used to clean up the spill will be installed over the next four months and that cleaning will take from 8 to 10 years.
The ground water will be treated after being pumped from four wells on the site.
