Lombard to remove unsightly lagoon rocks

The small, dark rocks Lombard Park District crews placed along the edge of Lombard Lagoon in early November are on their way out — but not because they pose a threat to the environment.

The rocks are not hazardous waste and do not contain petroleum, according to test results the park district received from an independent company.

But Deputy Director Rick Poole said they will be removed from the shore of the lagoon because they are “aesthetically unattractive.”

Poole said the district will dispose of the stones, which were donated by a construction company for use in recent work to prevent erosion at Lombard Lagoon and other ponds.

When the dark, marble-sized stones and lighter, golf ball-sized stones were applied to the lagoon's shoreline in early November, some park visitors noticed an odor and an oily film on the surface.

“The stuff stinks of something that smells like an oily petrochemical of some sort,” Dom De Bellis said in November. “It just seemed a little odd for it to be in nature like that in such a natural setting like the lagoon.”

The park district hired Prairie Analytical Systems, an environmental laboratory based in Springfield that specializes in testing oil, water and soil, to gather samples of the stones and run tests on them.

A representative of the company confirmed the park district was a client but said she could not comment on the results of the tests.

Poole said the district had environmental consultants affiliated with its legal counsel review the test results before deciding what to do with the rocks.

“It is construction debris that, while unattractive, does not require any special handling,” Poole said.