At the invitation of the Lisle Village Board, staffers from Illinois Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan’s office will update the board on a lawsuit against a Lisle metal fabricating company at Monday’s board meeting.
Citing a series of spills over more than two decades that allegedly sent a solvent seeping into residential wells, Ryan and the DuPage County state’s attorney last month filed suit against Lockformer Co. and Delaware-based Honeywell International. The suit alleges the companies created a substantial danger by allowing hazardous chemicals to spill and contaminate soil and groundwater.
“It’s not unheard of for our attorneys to attend such public events,” said Ryan spokesman Scott Mulford. “But it does underscore the importance to the attorney general of what is going on and what is being studied.”
The board will be briefed by Assistant Atty. Gen. Matt Dunn, Ryan’s chief of environmental enforcement, and Assistant Atty. Gen. Kendra Pohn, with the office’s environmental bureau, the lead attorney in the Lockformer lawsuit.
The suit claims the solvent, trichloroethylene, or TCE, was spilled numerous times between 1970 and 1992 as workers for a company now owned by Honeywell delivered the chemical to the metal-fabricating plant. It asserts the solvent permeated the ground and ran into nearby wells, leaving at least nine homes with contamination exceeding federal standards.
“We’ve been asked by the board for an update on the status of the lawsuit,” Mulford said. “And we will be providing as many answers as we can say in a public forum with the materials we have.”
Without admitting any responsibility, Lockformer agreed last week to pay for an alternative water supply for residents in the affected area and to define the extent of contamination resulting from the chemical spills. As part of that agreement, Lockformer on Monday provided a list of 17 other businesses in the area that could be sources of the contamination found in the wells, including one that Lockformer alleges commonly dumped drums of TCE into a storm drain from 1978 to 1981.
Ryan’s office is examining other materials provided by Lockformer as part of the agreement regarding the company’s uses and disposal of all chemicals in the last 11 years and the engineering design data on its concrete degreaser pit.
In testing conducted last month of 48 homes on private wells in an area south of the plant, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency found TCE was present in 34 wells, with amounts that exceeded federal standards at nine homes. Illinois EPA representatives also will appear at Monday’s meeting to discuss the ongoing testing.
In a related matter, the Village Board Monday is to approve an ordinance suggested by the mayor that will allow residents who apply for municipal water hookups between March 1 and Dec. 31 to stretch their payments over five years, interest-free. The village’s rate to run a line to the system is based on a property’s front footage and is $28 a foot. The hookup fee is $790.
The village also is scheduled to discuss extending the water system along Front Street, Riedy Road, Hitchcock Avenue and Elm Street. The first three roads are within the area where well contamination has been found. The village will not cover the cost of a private plumber who must install a pipe from the house to the line.
Lockformer had extended an offer last summer to connect several homes on Elm Street to the municipal water supply. Testing on those homes by Lockformer consultants showed no signs of TCE.
