'Perfect storm' surrounding contaminated home's clean up

Cracks in a nearly 120-year-old house seem inevitable.

But the symmetry of the cracks at Sandy Riess' West Chicago home indicated it wasn't a century-old problem causing the damage.

The first sign was a rip in the wall of the second floor. Then, the wood awning above the back patio began breaking off. And just last month a crack appeared in the cement floor of the basement. Drawing a straight line from top to bottom would connect all three defects.

Riess hasn't lived in the house for nearly 20 months because high levels of radioactivity were discovered in the basement shortly after she bought it in 2004. The contamination came to light after three of her dogs died of bone cancer.

Like many other houses in West Chicago, Riess' house had been contaminated with radioactive thorium from an old gas light factory nearby. However, unlike most of the other houses in the city, the contamination hadn't been cleaned.

Riess believes the decontamination effort is what is causing the structure to crack.

"I told them they couldn't lift a structure built in 1890 and not expect something to happen," she said.

In order to get at the radioactive material beneath the basement of the home, contractors had to put one side of the house on stilts, dig out several feet of soil and replace the concrete floor. Riess, her husband and mother all moved out while the work was being done. It was supposed to be a three-to-six month displacement. But when workers discovered an old well in the backyard, Riess sought to have that tested as well but no one would step forward. The family refused to move back until the well - which was located in the middle of the dog run - was properly tested. That still hasn't happened.

"Everyone disclaims responsibility for that," she said.

Her relocation was being paid for by a company that bought the old gas light factory, but they've since stopped paying her. Now, Riess is renting a house in Geneva for $2,200 a month and paying a $2,100-a-month mortgage on a house she can't live in. She is suing the people who sold her the house and the sellers' real estate company, but that case is meandering its way through the court system. The judge in the case recently ordered Riess' attorney to refile the suit to provide more specifics.

Riess finds herself mired in a series of legal, corporate and bureaucratic entanglements.

"If she didn't have bad luck, she'd have no luck," said her attorney, Pat Gloor. "It's a perfect storm going wherever she goes in terms of this house."

Tronox is the company responsible for removing the radiation contamination from her home. It filed for bankruptcy protection in January. Riess filed a claim for the damage to the house against Tronox through the corporation's insurance carrier, AIG.

"They're not cooperating," Gloor said.

Meanwhile, Tronox officials said they have offered to finish any restoration work on Riess' property and cap the well, even though they claim no responsibility for the well. They contend the well is clean, but Riess said no one has ever tested it to prove that.

"It would only take two days to do the work, but she has refused us access," said Robert Gibney, Tronox's vice president of corporate affairs. "The offer still stands."

Riess said she wishes Tronox instead, as the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency requested, would agree to mediate the dispute.

Tronox also is responsible for finishing up contamination cleanup along the West Branch of the DuPage River in Warrenville. That project has been derailed by the bankruptcy as well.

"The next phase of the cleanup should have started right about now," said Warrenville City Administrator John Coakley. "If they don't get started soon they'll have to wait until next year. It is looking less and less likely it will get done this year."

Gibney agrees.

"From what I was told it won't happen in 2009," he said.

Adding to the drama is Tronox's own lawsuit against its former parent company, Kerr-McGee, and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., the company that bought Kerr-McGee in 2006. The Tronox suit contends Tronox was "doomed to fail" when Kerr-McGee spun off its chemical properties and liabilities in a 2005 reorganization. The result of that move was the creation of Tronox. Once Tronox was moved out from the Kerr-McGee corporate umbrella and the former parent company was free of its environmental liabilities, Anadarko acquired Kerr-McGee, the suit claims. The U.S. Department of Justice joined Tronox in the suit against Anadarko and Kerr-McGee Thursday.

Riess was happy with that news.

"Good," she said. "Bigger guns than me need to get in that trench."

Riess is open to a settlement for her property, but so far she's had no offers.

"If we'd just get an offer," she said, "I'd be gone faster than a speeding bullet."