Vexed by thorium, looking for help

Doroteo and Paula Garza were planning to spend a lifetime in their West Chicago home, a block away from the former Kerr-McGee Co. factory where Doroteo worked for decades.

Over the past five months, the elderly couple watched across their small backyard as a neighbor, Sandy Riess, struggled to prove that radioactive, cancer-causing thorium remains on her property.

They saw Riess and her husband move out a month ago after radioactive levels 300 times what's considered safe were discovered.

The Garzas also got a letter telling them that their land might have to be dug up for the third time in three decades to clean possible residual contamination from the Kerr-McGee factory.

Tronox, the successor to Kerr-McGee, paid for two cleanups in the 1980s and 1990s.

Now the Garzas feel trapped on property they believe is worthless -- and may even be dangerous.

And they don't see much reason for optimism.

Even though she's out of her home, Riess is spending $179 a night for a hotel room.

Meanwhile, an appeal by the Garza family for help from the city has gone unanswered.

"They're not going to go through this three times," said Dolores Baker, 60, one of the Garzas' five children. "We won't let them."

Search for answers

Other homeowners soon may find themselves in the same situation.

Five years after the residual radioactive contamination came to light, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it's ready to make its first report to homeowners about "progress on evaluation" of the 117 properties that might be affected, including the Garza home.

A joint letter from the EPA and city will invite specific residents to the meeting planned for 6 p.m. Oct. 30 at city hall.

The presentation will address the testing of basements, where the Riess' contamination was found.

Previous owners of the Riess home didn't want the basement examined. Other residents made the same choice.

But the Garzas say they repeatedly requested testing inside their home. EPA representatives told them it wasn't needed.

"By the time of the meeting, we will know which of those 117 properties did or did not have their basements tested previously," EPA spokesman Mick Hans said.

Waiting for help

Riess and her husband, Rich, now are living with their two dogs in a local two-bedroom hotel suite.

Their lawyer, Mark Sargis, wants Tronox to agree to pay for the couple's living expenses before signing an access agreement that will allow the company to examine the Riess home.

With negotiations dragging on and bills mounting, Sargis said he may ask for an EPA mediator to step in.

"How can a homeowner give open-ended access without addressing what's important to them or knowing specifically what Tronox is going to provide?" Sargis said. "We're waiting for them to do the right thing here. I hope this same long process doesn't drag on for 116 other property owners."

Tronox spokeswoman Debbie Schramm said the company moved fewer than 10 families out of their homes during the previous two cleanups in West Chicago.

Under company policy, residents are relocated when cleanups impede access to their home or workers literally have to lift the building to get at thorium underneath, she said.

During past West Chicago cleanups, six homes were purchased for "various reasons," Schramm said, and "each situation was unique."

As yet, Tronox doesn't know if those conditions apply in the Riess home because the family hasn't signed the access agreement, Schramm said.

"I couldn't speculate on the future," Schramm said. "No one asked (the Riesses) to move out of the house. The EPA didn't indicate they should move out of the house."

However, EPA officials say that isn't the agency's role.

West Chicago Mayor Mike Kwasman said that he wasn't worried yet about what the Riess' situation might mean for the owners of other properties where contamination could be found.

"The city will take a position at that time, once we find out more data," Kwasman said.

Muted public outcry

Kwasman said that the Thorium Action Group, a resident organization whose protests sparked an EPA-supervised cleanup in the 1990s, is happy with the way the city has been handling the situation.

Over the past few months, TAG leaders have declined to comment to the news media.

Meanwhile, residents aren't complaining about the issue to city officials, Kwasman said.

"I think people feel confident that they're safe from the past years and years and years of going through this," he said.

The Garzas haven't spoken publicly because they always have lived quiet lives, Baker said.

But months ago, Baker called city hall and left a message for the mayor. She says she still is waiting for a reply.

"We're still hoping that they do right by our parents," she said.

"We, the children, want them out of here," Baker said. "The people that did the damage have to find a way to do this for them."