Daily Herald opinion: ‘Nothing is dangerous here’: After decades of work, a proud moment for West Chicago

“Nothing is dangerous here.”

It’s a phrase that West Chicago residents have been waiting decades to hear.

More than 10 years after the last rail cars containing contaminated soil left the former Kerr-McGee site, the parcel is now clean. Soon, it will become a park, as Dave Oberhelman detailed in Sunday’s paper.

It’s a proud moment for a community that has spent decades fighting to rid the town of radioactive thorium.

Thorium was produced at a factory in the community for decades before it was known to increase cancer risk.

The factory produced a sandlike material containing thorium that was used throughout the city for landscaping and building projects on hundreds of residential properties, Reed-Keppler Park and a wastewater treatment plant.

It also found its way into Kress Creek and the west branch of the DuPage River.

It was an environmental disaster.

It has taken decades and more than $1.2 billion to undo the damage.

Without the work of residents and lawmakers, it might not have ever happened.

As we’ve detailed over the years, a grassroots group of residents, local politicians, U.S. senators and representatives pushed the company responsible and the federal government to provide funds to fix the problem.

“This work that has been done over more than three decades has cleared the way for us to be able to make this a space that will be for the benefit of the community,” West Chicago Mayor Daniel Bovey said.

Work could start this week on concrete paths, tree planting and the restoration of native prairie on the north end of the property, where the factory once stood.

Deepak Bhojwani, administrator for the West Chicago Environmental Response Trust that is overseeing the cleanup, said remediation efforts will continue at three sites on the parcel until late 2027 or 2028 before it’s turned over to the city.

“This site is clean right now,” Bhojwani said. “We can leave right now and have no issues. But we are taking it one step further to make it more clean.”

This project is a great reminder that environmental damage can be repaired if we demand action and hold responsible parties accountable.

The residents of West Chicago demanded action for years. Lawmakers demanded action for years.

Their legacy will be a park where future generations can play and enjoy nature safely.