West Chicago needs to flex muscles again to finish cleanup job

Like many other residents of West Chicago, I'll bet Sandy Riess was relieved when a massive cleanup program was said to have scrubbed the city clean of radioactive thorium.

This is bad stuff. Prolonged, intense exposure to thorium has been linked to cancer. The thorium had been inadvertently spread throughout the city by Kerr McGee Co.

But the thorium hasn't gone away, and apprehension has returned. Particularly in the Riess household.

Recent testing found Riess' home has radioactivity way beyond acceptable levels. The latest test reveals that the contamination found in her home emits 342 times the amount of radiation the federal government deems to be safe, as reported by Daily Herald Staff Writer Rupa Shenoy.

At first, the EPA surmised that the thorium found in the home was a "new discovery" that had nothing to do with Kerr McGee. It was believed the thorium might be encased in some kind of brick the company never produced, making the contamination unique to that one property.

But that supposition has fallen apart in light of the newest test results that confirm that Riess' home is, indeed, contaminated by thorium disseminated by Kerr McGee. Thorium that was thought to be cleaned up.

That is disconcerting enough. But now there is hemming and hawing about what to do next, when an incomplete cleanup calls for a reaction in unmistakably urgent terms and actions.

I don't hear the EPA saying, "OK, given what we found at the Riess home, it's time to get going on re-testing houses in the area and finish the job if they're contaminated."

And a spokesperson for Kerr McGee, which is responsible for the cleanup, said the company will work with the EPA to evaluate the Riess home's "need for and options to remediate." These blurry bureaucratic words might get nods of approval in a corporate board room. But I don't think they aren't causing Riess or other West Chicago residents who may still have contaminated properties to heave great sighs of relief.

I don't pretend to be a scientist. And I understand the government doesn't want to rush to conclusions that would be unduly alarming.

But I don't need to be on the cusp of a Nobel Prize in Chemistry to comfortably suggest what the option should be regarding a home that has 342 times the amount of radiation considered safe -- clean it up. Right away.

Moreover, Riess' is one of 117 homes that might contain residual contamination left over from a 1980s cleanup and missed during a second examination in the 1990s.

The city and the EPA have been in meetings, discussing how best to deal with these potentially contaminated properties, including methods of testing. It's time to stop making agendas and get homes tested and, if necessary, cleaned up.

It is also disappointing that Riess has lost faith in the city taking this matter seriously, though West Chicago Mayor Mike Kwasman said that is clearly not the case.

I do know this. In the 1980s and 1990s, the city of West Chicago, its citizens, and lawmakers formed an impressive partnership that ended dawdling discussions about removing thorium that threatened people's health and damaged the city's reputation, and led to the start up of a cleanup program. It was a proud moment in West Chicago's history, and this grassroots campaign was one of the best of its kind anywhere in the country.

It is this kind of call to action that is once again needed on behalf of those residents of West Chicago who live with the fact that the thorium hasn't completely gone away.

West Chicago flexed considerable muscle to get the cleanup started. The EPA and Kerr McGee needs to see veins standing out in those West Chicago biceps once again, to get the job done.