Epa to begin clean up of illinois reliant site

The federal Environmental Protection Agency may soon begin remedial clean up of a contaminated site in Rock Falls, Illinois, the Rock Falls City Council learned this week. The agency will be taking the lead in initiating clean up of the site, and will complete the project with the help of the city. The contaminated area is the former Reliant Fastener site, which contains an abandoned factory heavily contaminated with asbestos. The presence of asbestos on the site means the EPA must be involved in the clean up, according to environmental engineer John Brimeyer. However Brimeyer, who works for the environmental clean up company Terracon which was hired to work on cleaning up the site, says the project can proceed only if money is available in the city’s fiscal budget for this year. If money isn’t immediately available the project cannot begin until October. The clean up plan has been several years in the making. In 2006, the federal EPA approved more than $120,000 in Brownfields money to fund an initial survey of the site. The survey was carried out to determine the extent of the contamination at the Rock Falls River site, and begin devising a plan of action to clean up residual asbestos and other toxic substances. The Illinois EPA has approved the plan for cleaning up the site, which includes removal of contaminated soil and ground water. The contaminated soil will be removed in a vacuum-type process, which the EPA estimates will be completed over a period of four to six months. Brimeyer says the federal EPA must sign off on the project before it can proceed, but does not anticipate any problems with that part of the plan. A date hasn’t yet been set for the soil clean up, but it may begin at the same time as another phase of the project, in which rubble will be removed from the former Reliant site. Rock Falls Mayor David Blanton says he is satisfied with the progress being made on the clean up project, even though it may not be completed for some time. “We are moving forward, it does seem slowly, but in scheme of things, it is rapidly. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks we’ll have the final verdict one way or another of which way to go. We do see light at the end of the tunnel.” (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)