Waukegan Harbor plans in jeopardy
Waukegan is close to losing more than $23 million in federal funds to clean its Lake Michigan harbor, a main element of an ambitious downtown revitalization plan.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday said it would not sign an agreement for the work because the city was requesting "a number of unrelated contingencies unrelated to the environmental cleanup of the harbor."
"The contingencies added by Waukegan are not only unnecessary, but they have nothing to do with restoration," the agency said in a letter to Mayor Richard Hyde.
One of those requests essentially would have created a limit on the size of ships that could use the harbor. The rule likely would spell the end for two large industrial businesses that still operate out of the harbor and depend on large ships to bring materials in and out.
The harbor is a key part of a proposed $1.2 billion lakefront renovation. Waukegan officials have said residential developers told them the industrial uses are a detriment.
"EPA didn't want to take a position on that. It was a separate matter from the environmental cleanup," said Gary Gulezian, office director of the agency's Great Lakes National Program.
That so-called draft limit on the size of ships surfaced in May and surprised supporters of the plan, including members of the Lake County Board.
As proposed, this final cleanup of the harbor would have resulted in the removal of 250,000 cubic yards of PCB-contaminated sediment. Through it's Great Lakes Legacy Act, the federal government would have contributed $23.4 million, or about 65 percent of the $36 million total cost.
Local sources, including the city, state, harbor businesses and county, were to have made up the difference. The businesses and county withdrew their support after learning of the draft limit.
Neither Hyde nor Ray Vukovich, Waukegan's director of governmental services, were available Wednesday for comment.
U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, who has championed the clean-up and downtown redevelopment through the federal process, said Wednesday he was quickly trying to set up a meeting with the city.
"It's a surprising decision if they (Waukegan) make it. No other Great Lakes harbor is getting this kind of money," he said.
"Obviously, Waukegan has got to clean up its harbor and it'll never get a better offer" than the millions the federal government is willing to contribute, he said.
Gulezian said the window is still open, but not for long.
"If it can be turned around quickly … we're working with a number of other communities around the Great Lakes now that have proposals in to use that money."