Report: Radioactivity came from Kerr-McGee

During the past few years, West Chicago residents began to believe that they had rid themselves of the radioactive waste that tainted the city and its reputation for decades.

But test results this week confirmed that a home is highly contaminated with cancer-causing thorium disseminated by the Kerr-McGee Co. As a result, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials are considering re-testing houses in the area.

The contamination found emits 342 times the amount of radiation the federal government considers safe.

It was discovered in Sandy Riess' basement, which, like an unknown number of other West Chicago basements, wasn't tested during two federally supervised cleanups in the 1980s and 1990s. Riess' property sits on the periphery of the former Kerr-McGee plant.

"We're going to be looking at how many basements close to Kerr-McGee were actually tested and whether we should consider looking at those," said Rebecca Frey, EPA project manager.

Debbie Schramm, a spokeswoman for Kerr-McGee, now known as Tronox, said the company will be working with the EPA to evaluate the Riess home's "need for and options to remediate."

In the wake of the results, Riess has cut off communication with West Chicago officials.

"The city has pledged unyielding support and assistance," Riess said Wednesday. "To date, we haven't seen any results. Meetings have been unproductive."

She said city leaders had disparaged her in comments to other residents.

"I haven't heard that from anybody at the city," Mayor Mike Kwasman said. "The city is taking this seriously."

Riess' is one of 117 homes that might contain residual contamination leftover from a 1980s voluntary cleanup by Kerr-McGee and missed during a second cleanup in the 1990s. She went public with her concerns in May, after three of her dogs died within six months.

In response, West Chicago officials set up meetings with the EPA and are now working with the agency on a methodology to test the 117 homes.

"We brought people to the table," Kwasman said. "We will not be satisfied until the EPA says there's nothing to worry about and until then we're still demanding that there be a cleanup."

Earlier this month, when results of the first round of testing at Riess' home showed high levels of radiation, city officials tentatively agreed with the EPA that the contamination was unique to Riess' property.

At the time, EPA officials speculated that the radiation originated in bricks that line a three-foot deep cistern in Riess' basement, not the dirt surrounding the cistern. That would've meant that the thorium was used in making the bricks and didn't come from Kerr-McGee.

But results from a second round of tests, obtained by the Daily Herald, show the highest level of radium, an element measured as a way to detect thorium, in the soil behind the bricks, beneath Riess' cement basement floor.

"Unfortunately, we've been right in our suspicions at every turn, despite the 'optimists' that thought these cleanups were done," said Riess' attorney, Mark Sargis.

As yet, the EPA doesn't know the origin or extent of the contamination. Frey said she had never seen readings so high on any West Chicago residential property.

But Riess should have been safe from harm because the thorium was covered with cement, she said.

Frey said she still believes the contamination to be unique to Riess' home, since the EPA never has encountered similar cisterns in other West Chicago homes.