Ex-Siemens foundations could come out in January, company tells Batavia
Siemens Energy and Automation officials are telling Batavia that slabs of concrete foundation where their factory once stood could be removed as soon as January.
The company sent a letter to Batavia officials Oct. 22, the day after several aldermen criticized Siemens at a council committee meeting. A company spokesman sent a copy by email to the Daily Herald Oct. 23.
Aldermen accused the company of dragging its feet on fixing the site at Van Nortwick Avenue and McKee Street. The buildings were demolished in 2009, and in 2013 the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency issued a letter that no further remediation was needed as far as removing trichloroethylene from the ground.
In June, Batavia ticketed Siemens for failure to remove the foundations and failure to restore the site by planting a lawn.
According to the letter from a project manager for Siemens' real estate division, "Siemens has been working diligently to remediate and restore to productive use the site located at 1000 Main Street. As with many such remediation projects, the work has necessarily occupied more time than both Siemens and the City of Batavia had hoped."
The manager said Siemens is obtaining permits to remove the asphalt parking lots outside the fenced-off areas, and expects to begin that work in November.
It also plans to test more soil borings in relation to taking out the concrete slabs. The company expects to develop a sampling plan within about four weeks, and then spend six weeks doing the sampling, if weather permits, wrote James Richter, location management unit head for Siemens' Illinois properties.
If no additional tests are required, the company would take out the slabs in January. The job will take about two months, Richter wrote.
Siemens bought Furnas Electric in 1996. Furnas had moved to the site in 1940.