Since cancer-causing chemicals were found in wells in Jim Warnecke’s unincorporated Downers Grove neighborhood 2 1/2 years ago, his family has had to drink bottled water and take only short showers, rather than baths, with an open window.
Their ordeal ended Monday when local, state and federal officials gathered on the Warneckes’ lawn to toast the completion of a $4.3 million project to connect about 750 homes in the area to clean, safe Lake Michigan water.
It was a big relief, said Warnecke, who has two children.
“Our well water tasted fine,” he said. “It was the unseen demon that was the problem.”
In 2001 state environmental officials found private wells in the area contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (also known as perchloroethylene, or PCE) or a combination of the two chemicals, which are used as solvents. They were traced to Ellsworth Industrial Park in Downers Grove.
More than 200 of the homes tested higher than the federal safety standard, and Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Director Renee Cipriano described the problem Monday as “very difficult and truly scary” for residents.
The water project was completed about $700,000 under budget and a year ahead of schedule, officials said. As part of a settlement agreement announced last August by the U.S. EPA, 14 companies at Ellsworth Industrial Park agreed to spend up to $4.275 million to provide the hookups.
A $431,000 federal grant and a $350,000 Illinois EPA grant went toward the infrastructure, and the county chipped in $100,000 to coordinate the project with contractors and engineers.
DuPage County Board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom praised the village of Downers Grove for recognizing the scope of the public health crisis and reducing the water fee and waiving annexation requirements so the homes could quickly link up to the municipal water system.
“Safe water is a right, not a privilege,” he said.
The Downers Grove contamination came to the attention of U.S. EPA investigators as they looked into similar tainted water problems in nearby Lisle, which were traced to Lockformer Co., a bankrupt metal fabricating company. Last month the Illinois attorney general ordered Lockformer to set aside $2 million to ensure that 154 nearby residences receive safe water. But efforts to connect residents in the unincorporated Suburban Estates subdivision to Lake Michigan water have not gone as smoothly. Homeowners are opposed to hookups into the mains from the village of Woodridge because they fear annexation–which they say will mean higher taxes.
Liz Chaplin, who served on a citizens advisory group formed as part of a task force in response to the Downers Grove contaminated wells, said fear of annexation was a major issue at first among the residents in that area as well.
Chaplin’s well had chemical contamination almost three times the federally safe level, she said. In the spring of 2003, her 8-year-old daughter, Ellena, came down with Kawasaki disease, which affects the heart, coronary arteries and blood vessels. It’s been linked to carpet cleaners that contain TCE–the same toxic chemical found in her well.
“It might’ve been a fluke, but you never know,” she said. “You never are going to know.”
