Post by JB on Apr 8, 2008 4:59:57 GMT -6
Consultants: IEPA will approve clean-up
Contaminants contained to portion of Eola property
April 8, 2008
By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com
Indian Prairie School District 204 ended four weeks of wondering Monday when it released the environmental study results for the 87-acre Eola Road property selected as the site of Metea Valley High School.
Testing Service Corporation conducted the two-phase environmental study of the site, which focused on a 15.5-acre portion of the property where a peaker power plant built in 1970 operated until roughly a year ago. During Monday evening's District 204 board meeting, TSC representatives said they are confident that the remediation project planned for this land can earn a thumbs up from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
"Nobody's going to come running in here and be the environmental police and tell them to do anything, that it's that big of a hazard," said David Hurst, TSC environmental department manager. "The contaminants, again, are diesel fuel. There's some coolant, there's some other transformer oils. Some of what is there is similar to a leaking gas station."
TSC also is confident that the remaining 71.5 acres do not need to be similarly scrutinized because "it appears that the contamination has not gone off of the peaker plant site," Hurst said.
Brian Walker, a TSC section manager, explained that confidence.
"The reason for the phased approach to an environmental assessment of a property is so that the shotgun approach of sampling everything everywhere isn't appropriate," he said. "This is the way that environmental due diligence is performed everywhere. This is the standard of the industry."
Phase I
The first phase of TSC's study called for the collection of historical data regarding usage of the property, and was intended to determine where, if anywhere, actual testing for contamination should be conducted. In other words, it eliminates the need to test everywhere by identifying areas where contamination actually or potentially occurred.
This phase of the study indicated testing was recommended only for a portion of 37 acres of the site selected for Metea - specifically, the 15.5-acre area where a peaker plant had, for 36 years, intermittently used natural gas and diesel fuel to generate power during times of peak usage. The plant maintained a 750,000-gallon diesel fuel above-ground storage tank on the property, and generated electricity with the use of 16 generating units.
Records uncovered in this phase of the study indicate there were five reported spills of contaminants at the site since 1993. When it was owned by Commonwealth Edison, there were "releases" of 100 gallons of diesel fuel in 1993; 600 and 1,000 gallons of lubricating oil in separate spills in 1994; and 100 gallons in 1996. Commonwealth Edison sold the plant to Midwest Generation in 1999, and, before it closed the plant about a year ago, it reported one major spill of 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel in 2002. While 8,000 gallons of that spill were successfully recovered, some of it extended into the plant's drainage system and into a retention pond. That spill was confined to the property, though, and Midwest Generation performed its own remediation of that contamination.
Phase II
Nonetheless, the use and occasional spillage of these chemicals on the site led TSC to recommend testing in 15 areas where they were or may have been spilled. TSC took 66 soil borings in these areas, and installed six groundwater monitoring wells. Results of these tests showed the groundwater samples were clean, and five soil samples in four areas were contaminated above the IEPA's most stringent standards for the actual ingestion of these chemicals.
"Many of the locations that we identified as potential areas in the Phase I did not play out to be areas of contamination," Walker said.
But the five contaminated samples led TSC to take 24 borings in those specific areas. These additional borings were taken "to try and further delineate both horizontally how far some of the contamination extended, and the vertical depth of the contamination," Hurst said.
District 204 intends to work with the IEPA's voluntary site remediation program to address the contamination and earn a "no further remediation" letter, either by removing the contaminated dirt in a manner that meets the IEPA's approval, or constructing an "engineered barrier" that will ensure that the contamination is contained.
This area is slated to be used for storage of the district's maintenance equipment. The remainder will house stormwater retention and tennis courts. So the remediation project, which will take at least six months to complete, will not impact the construction timeline of the high school, which will be built on property to the west.
"We don't plan to do anything on that property until we get an NFR," Superintendent Stephen Daeschner said. "And you've got to remember that that's just a small portion. So we'll fence that baby off and leave it alone until we get an NFR."
By the numbers
15 Locations identified in the Phase I Environmental Site Assessment as areas where contaminants were or may have potentially been spilled at the peaker plant.
66 Soil borings taken in those areas to determine what, if any, contaminants were present.
5 Of the initial 66 borings tested positive for contaminants in excess of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's strictest standards.
24 Additional soil borings taken to determine how far the contamination in these areas had spread.
6 Groundwater monitoring wells installed to measure levels of contamination in the groundwater.
0 Samples from the groundwater monitoring wells that tested positive for contamination.
eta - cleaned up insert formatting
Contaminants contained to portion of Eola property
April 8, 2008
By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com
Indian Prairie School District 204 ended four weeks of wondering Monday when it released the environmental study results for the 87-acre Eola Road property selected as the site of Metea Valley High School.
Testing Service Corporation conducted the two-phase environmental study of the site, which focused on a 15.5-acre portion of the property where a peaker power plant built in 1970 operated until roughly a year ago. During Monday evening's District 204 board meeting, TSC representatives said they are confident that the remediation project planned for this land can earn a thumbs up from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
"Nobody's going to come running in here and be the environmental police and tell them to do anything, that it's that big of a hazard," said David Hurst, TSC environmental department manager. "The contaminants, again, are diesel fuel. There's some coolant, there's some other transformer oils. Some of what is there is similar to a leaking gas station."
TSC also is confident that the remaining 71.5 acres do not need to be similarly scrutinized because "it appears that the contamination has not gone off of the peaker plant site," Hurst said.
Brian Walker, a TSC section manager, explained that confidence.
"The reason for the phased approach to an environmental assessment of a property is so that the shotgun approach of sampling everything everywhere isn't appropriate," he said. "This is the way that environmental due diligence is performed everywhere. This is the standard of the industry."
Phase I
The first phase of TSC's study called for the collection of historical data regarding usage of the property, and was intended to determine where, if anywhere, actual testing for contamination should be conducted. In other words, it eliminates the need to test everywhere by identifying areas where contamination actually or potentially occurred.
This phase of the study indicated testing was recommended only for a portion of 37 acres of the site selected for Metea - specifically, the 15.5-acre area where a peaker plant had, for 36 years, intermittently used natural gas and diesel fuel to generate power during times of peak usage. The plant maintained a 750,000-gallon diesel fuel above-ground storage tank on the property, and generated electricity with the use of 16 generating units.
Records uncovered in this phase of the study indicate there were five reported spills of contaminants at the site since 1993. When it was owned by Commonwealth Edison, there were "releases" of 100 gallons of diesel fuel in 1993; 600 and 1,000 gallons of lubricating oil in separate spills in 1994; and 100 gallons in 1996. Commonwealth Edison sold the plant to Midwest Generation in 1999, and, before it closed the plant about a year ago, it reported one major spill of 10,000 gallons of diesel fuel in 2002. While 8,000 gallons of that spill were successfully recovered, some of it extended into the plant's drainage system and into a retention pond. That spill was confined to the property, though, and Midwest Generation performed its own remediation of that contamination.
Phase II
Nonetheless, the use and occasional spillage of these chemicals on the site led TSC to recommend testing in 15 areas where they were or may have been spilled. TSC took 66 soil borings in these areas, and installed six groundwater monitoring wells. Results of these tests showed the groundwater samples were clean, and five soil samples in four areas were contaminated above the IEPA's most stringent standards for the actual ingestion of these chemicals.
"Many of the locations that we identified as potential areas in the Phase I did not play out to be areas of contamination," Walker said.
But the five contaminated samples led TSC to take 24 borings in those specific areas. These additional borings were taken "to try and further delineate both horizontally how far some of the contamination extended, and the vertical depth of the contamination," Hurst said.
District 204 intends to work with the IEPA's voluntary site remediation program to address the contamination and earn a "no further remediation" letter, either by removing the contaminated dirt in a manner that meets the IEPA's approval, or constructing an "engineered barrier" that will ensure that the contamination is contained.
This area is slated to be used for storage of the district's maintenance equipment. The remainder will house stormwater retention and tennis courts. So the remediation project, which will take at least six months to complete, will not impact the construction timeline of the high school, which will be built on property to the west.
"We don't plan to do anything on that property until we get an NFR," Superintendent Stephen Daeschner said. "And you've got to remember that that's just a small portion. So we'll fence that baby off and leave it alone until we get an NFR."
By the numbers
15 Locations identified in the Phase I Environmental Site Assessment as areas where contaminants were or may have potentially been spilled at the peaker plant.
66 Soil borings taken in those areas to determine what, if any, contaminants were present.
5 Of the initial 66 borings tested positive for contaminants in excess of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency's strictest standards.
24 Additional soil borings taken to determine how far the contamination in these areas had spread.
6 Groundwater monitoring wells installed to measure levels of contamination in the groundwater.
0 Samples from the groundwater monitoring wells that tested positive for contamination.
eta - cleaned up insert formatting
