Speak out on Superfund agreement
Four years after a routine sample changed daily life for hundreds of homeowners near Wauconda, a blueprint for protecting their water supply is available for public comment.
The agreement is between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and 13 entities determined to be potentially responsible parties for Wauconda Sand and Gravel, a former landfill at Bonner and Garland roads. It has been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
The 90-page legal document, known as a consent decree, includes a wide-ranging plan to monitor water supplies and address other details.
Work includes a ground water monitoring network and a new study of the movement of ground water to characterize the nature and extent of contamination and evaluate future threats.
Once approved, it would resolve a chemical contamination scare that put many area residents on edge.
"This is what we've been waiting for," said Mike Kuhn, solid waste specialist with the Lake County Health Department.
Public comment will be accepted until Sept. 24, though that can be extended. Details could change prior to being reviewed and ultimately accepted by a federal judge.
It was Kuhn, who discovered vinyl chloride, a potentially hazardous chemical, in a private well at a home near Wauconda Sand and Gravel, which was declared a federal Superfund site in 1983.
That finding unleashed a torrent of activity, including several packed and emotional public hearings; formation of citizen groups; calls for action by prominent politicians; and, the extension of nearly five miles of pipes to carry Wauconda municipal water to replace about 400 private wells.
Most affected residents have been connected to the municipal supply. However, they still are concerned chemical contamination can move elsewhere, and want assurances the situation will be monitored and addressed if that happens.
For example, vinyl chloride recently has been detected at levels well below the allowable limit in one of 12 wells on North Garland Road between the landfill and Hillcrest subdivision. It's an area not connected to municipal water.
"Sampling is still ongoing," said Mark Kollar, associate regional counsel for the EPA's Midwest region. "A lot of things have just been ongoing; work has never stopped."
The consent decree requires the entities, known as the Wauconda Task Group II, to pay past and future costs associated with the site. In doing so, the Task Group does not admit liability or acknowledge any releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances from the site.
Some comments are being formulated. The Wauconda Superfund Community Advisory Group (CAG), for example, has spent about $50,000 in grant money on a technical expert and lawyer to review documents.
The group calls for perimeter monitoring for five years rather than two, for example, and asks homeowners immediately be connected to a public water supply once a confirmed sample of a hazardous substance has been detected.
"I believe it's fairly thorough (but) there still are some issues that need to be addressed," said Joe Anderson, a Hillcrest subdivision resident and grant administrator for CAG. His driveway was the site of several press conferences regarding the well contamination, including one by Sen. Dick Durbin.
"I'm personally very excited we've gotten to this point," he added. "This is for all intents and purposes a resolution for our community."