Post by WeBe204 on Mar 16, 2008 7:13:54 GMT -6
D204 sifting through environmental reports
Group says Metea site is hazardous
March 16, 2008
By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com
Neighborhood Schools for Our Children's flier has made its way all over Indian Prairie School District 204.
Covered with photos of high-voltage power lines, warning signs for natural gas pipelines and a petroleum tank, the flier asks "is this a good place to build a school for our children?"
District 204 is seeking the answer to that question, as it intends to purchase that place - 87 acres at Eola and Molitor roads - and build Metea Valley High School there. Since announcing its decision to do so in mid-January, the district has delved into environmental concerns associated with the site. It has publicized some of its findings, but the release of other results has been delayed.
Results not released
During its Monday meeting, the District 204 board had hoped to review the results of a two-phase environmental study of 37 acres owned by Midwest Generation, which, until a year ago, operated a peaker power plant on 17 acres of that property. The first phase of the study looked at historical data from the site and past property owners. The second phase involved soil borings and ground water samplings looking for the presence of diesel fuel or antifreeze, chemicals commonly used at the site.
Board President Mark Metzger said district officials had met with and asked questions of the consultants who performed the studies, and he said the consultants advised them "that everything that was located - and it's very minimal at that - is easily and regularly remediated."
However, the district was unable to secure the necessary permission to release the studies' results in time for Monday's meeting. Superintendent Stephen Daeschner later said the reason the results weren't released Monday was because the district has a confidentiality agreement with the various parties involved in the land purchase. They've agreed to only release these results when all parties are ready to do so, he said.
The peaker plant
One of those parties - Midwest Generation - received those results the Friday afternoon before Monday's meeting.
"Our technical people are currently analyzing that report as we speak," Midwest Generation spokesman Charley Parnell said.
Parnell said the company didn't yet know what conclusion the district-hired consultants had reached in the report, and he stressed that Midwest Generation has said from the beginning it does not anticipate there will be any "significant issues associated with the site." Parnell said the company expects there will be "some minor remediation" required on the site, and that after the remediation is complete, "we're not going to hold the liability going forward."
The studies are being overseen by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, which must approve all test results and will ensure the site is clean before the district will build the third high school at the Eola site. The district has stated that Midwest Generation has assumed all financial responsibility for the environmental cleanup and removal of buildings on the site.
But Parnell also emphasized Midwest Generation's position in this land purchase, saying the company wasn't "actively marketing" the property when District 204 offered to purchase it.
The peaker plant was located on the northwest portion of the property District 204 wants to purchase. It is where the petroleum tank photographed for NSFOC's flier is located. The district's site plans call for construction of tennis courts on a portion of the property. The rest would serve as retention ponds, according to the plans.
But these plans could change, Daeschner said. The district may decide to locate storage and maintenance facilities in that area, he said.
"That will not occur for quite some time now," he said. "So, in all honesty, that whole entire area is going to be fenced off, if you will. It will be not be utilized, certainly until it is totally remediated, but we will have nobody - kids or anyone - working in that area for quite a while down the road."
The wires
The high voltage power lines seen in the flier's photos run the length of the site's northern and eastern borders, converging in the northeast corner at a ComEd electrical switching station adjacent to the property. The lines to the north would come no closer than 350 feet from the school, said Todd DePaul, District 204's construction manager for the third high school. Those on the eastern border would be about 1,200 feet away, he said.
Both the district and NSFOC have expressed concerns regarding the electromagnetic radiation levels students might be exposed to if the high school were built at that sight. District 204 acted on those concerns by hiring Environ International Corporation, an environmental consulting firm, to analyze EMF readings on the property. The board did review those results Monday, and was told by Gary Crawford, Environ principal, that the EMF readings were consistent with "levels that people are already encountering on day-to-day basis."
"From the standpoint of is this a hazard, we don't believe that it is," Crawford said. "Like I said, these are very common levels that we're all exposed to every day at work and at school and at home. These are common levels. There's no indication of a cause-effect or dose-response relationship to electromagnetic fields in the range.
Crawford even affirmed board member Curt Bradshaw's query of whether it would "be accurate to say that the EMF exposure that a student would experience at the AME site would be mostly driven by the wiring and electronics of the building and probably be essentially in line with that which our students at Waubonsie and Neuqua experience currently, or at any other typical high school?"
The pipes
Also, Natural Gas Pipeline of America operates three natural gas transmission pipelines within the boundaries of the proposed site. Two 36-inch outside diameter pipelines and one 20-inch outside diameter pipeline traverse the property. Buried roughly four feet deep, the lines have maximum allowable operating pressure between 687 and 760 pounds per square inch.
The lines on this site are inspected according to federal regulations. Those regulations require that patrol and leak surveys be conducted at least once each calendar year, and that computerized diagnostic runs through the lines be conducted every seven years. Construction of a school on the site would turn the property into a "high consequence area," which would increase the number of required patrol and leak surveys to at least twice a year.
An electrical current also courses through the lines to minimize the risk of external corrosion of the pipelines. Environ also noted that the EMF readings over and around the pipes were equivalent to the levels emitted by "just about all common household items."
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/844929,6_1_NA16_METEA_S1.article
Group says Metea site is hazardous
March 16, 2008
By Tim Waldorf twaldorf@scn1.com
Neighborhood Schools for Our Children's flier has made its way all over Indian Prairie School District 204.
Covered with photos of high-voltage power lines, warning signs for natural gas pipelines and a petroleum tank, the flier asks "is this a good place to build a school for our children?"
District 204 is seeking the answer to that question, as it intends to purchase that place - 87 acres at Eola and Molitor roads - and build Metea Valley High School there. Since announcing its decision to do so in mid-January, the district has delved into environmental concerns associated with the site. It has publicized some of its findings, but the release of other results has been delayed.
Results not released
During its Monday meeting, the District 204 board had hoped to review the results of a two-phase environmental study of 37 acres owned by Midwest Generation, which, until a year ago, operated a peaker power plant on 17 acres of that property. The first phase of the study looked at historical data from the site and past property owners. The second phase involved soil borings and ground water samplings looking for the presence of diesel fuel or antifreeze, chemicals commonly used at the site.
Board President Mark Metzger said district officials had met with and asked questions of the consultants who performed the studies, and he said the consultants advised them "that everything that was located - and it's very minimal at that - is easily and regularly remediated."
However, the district was unable to secure the necessary permission to release the studies' results in time for Monday's meeting. Superintendent Stephen Daeschner later said the reason the results weren't released Monday was because the district has a confidentiality agreement with the various parties involved in the land purchase. They've agreed to only release these results when all parties are ready to do so, he said.
The peaker plant
One of those parties - Midwest Generation - received those results the Friday afternoon before Monday's meeting.
"Our technical people are currently analyzing that report as we speak," Midwest Generation spokesman Charley Parnell said.
Parnell said the company didn't yet know what conclusion the district-hired consultants had reached in the report, and he stressed that Midwest Generation has said from the beginning it does not anticipate there will be any "significant issues associated with the site." Parnell said the company expects there will be "some minor remediation" required on the site, and that after the remediation is complete, "we're not going to hold the liability going forward."
The studies are being overseen by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, which must approve all test results and will ensure the site is clean before the district will build the third high school at the Eola site. The district has stated that Midwest Generation has assumed all financial responsibility for the environmental cleanup and removal of buildings on the site.
But Parnell also emphasized Midwest Generation's position in this land purchase, saying the company wasn't "actively marketing" the property when District 204 offered to purchase it.
The peaker plant was located on the northwest portion of the property District 204 wants to purchase. It is where the petroleum tank photographed for NSFOC's flier is located. The district's site plans call for construction of tennis courts on a portion of the property. The rest would serve as retention ponds, according to the plans.
But these plans could change, Daeschner said. The district may decide to locate storage and maintenance facilities in that area, he said.
"That will not occur for quite some time now," he said. "So, in all honesty, that whole entire area is going to be fenced off, if you will. It will be not be utilized, certainly until it is totally remediated, but we will have nobody - kids or anyone - working in that area for quite a while down the road."
The wires
The high voltage power lines seen in the flier's photos run the length of the site's northern and eastern borders, converging in the northeast corner at a ComEd electrical switching station adjacent to the property. The lines to the north would come no closer than 350 feet from the school, said Todd DePaul, District 204's construction manager for the third high school. Those on the eastern border would be about 1,200 feet away, he said.
Both the district and NSFOC have expressed concerns regarding the electromagnetic radiation levels students might be exposed to if the high school were built at that sight. District 204 acted on those concerns by hiring Environ International Corporation, an environmental consulting firm, to analyze EMF readings on the property. The board did review those results Monday, and was told by Gary Crawford, Environ principal, that the EMF readings were consistent with "levels that people are already encountering on day-to-day basis."
"From the standpoint of is this a hazard, we don't believe that it is," Crawford said. "Like I said, these are very common levels that we're all exposed to every day at work and at school and at home. These are common levels. There's no indication of a cause-effect or dose-response relationship to electromagnetic fields in the range.
Crawford even affirmed board member Curt Bradshaw's query of whether it would "be accurate to say that the EMF exposure that a student would experience at the AME site would be mostly driven by the wiring and electronics of the building and probably be essentially in line with that which our students at Waubonsie and Neuqua experience currently, or at any other typical high school?"
The pipes
Also, Natural Gas Pipeline of America operates three natural gas transmission pipelines within the boundaries of the proposed site. Two 36-inch outside diameter pipelines and one 20-inch outside diameter pipeline traverse the property. Buried roughly four feet deep, the lines have maximum allowable operating pressure between 687 and 760 pounds per square inch.
The lines on this site are inspected according to federal regulations. Those regulations require that patrol and leak surveys be conducted at least once each calendar year, and that computerized diagnostic runs through the lines be conducted every seven years. Construction of a school on the site would turn the property into a "high consequence area," which would increase the number of required patrol and leak surveys to at least twice a year.
An electrical current also courses through the lines to minimize the risk of external corrosion of the pipelines. Environ also noted that the EMF readings over and around the pipes were equivalent to the levels emitted by "just about all common household items."
www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/844929,6_1_NA16_METEA_S1.article
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