Batavia Groundwater Contamination Study

Batavia Groundwater Contamination Study

Fact Sheet #4
April 2000

Batavia, Illinois

Update

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) has completed its environmental investigations at the Batavia Groundwater Contamination Site. Illinois EPA has placed a final report of the investigation in the Site Information Repository in the Batavia Public Library, for review by interested citizens.

The study began in 1996 with the discovery of industrial solvents and their breakdown products (Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs) in several wells on the east bank of the Fox River in Batavia. As previously reported in Fact Sheet #2, routine water sampling by the Illinois Department of Public Health ("IDPH") identified groundwater contamination in several industrial and non-community public water supply wells in Batavia. Subsequent, extensive investigation by the Illinois EPA and IDPH has defined the area where groundwater is contaminated with Vinyl Chloride and other VOCs. The surface area overlying the contaminated groundwater is roughly bounded by the Fox River on the West, Laurel Street on the North, Illinois Route 25 on the East and Bond Drive on the South and is known as the Batavia Groundwater Contamination Site ("Site").

It was much more difficult to identify the vertical extent of the contamination. The Site is underlain by a few feet of surface soil over hundreds of feet of fractured bedrock. Most local wells draw from an aquifer approximately 200 feet below ground surface. However, some have tapped into water at depths from 25 to 100 feet below the surface. The shallow groundwater flows through bedrock fractures west toward the river and the deeper groundwater flows generally south and west. Two distinct and separate contaminated areas have been identified within the SITE. In both areas, V.C. contamination has been identified in both soil and groundwater, however the investigations have determined that the contaminated zones are separated by a zone where contaminants were not detected.

Based on the results of the investigation, Illinois EPA has concluded that there were at least two separate original sources of contamination by the VOCs. It is important to remember that both sources may have been in place for many years and been subject to degradation and movement with the groundwater. The source of the contamination in the well that started the investigation, at the Montessori Academy at 595 River Street, appears to be on the west side of the Montessori property itself, near the Prairie Path, although it is not known how the contamination came to be there.

A much larger and more highly concentrated area of groundwater contamination was found to the south, primarily on the properties of the Eagle Concrete and Batavia Concrete Companies. Again, the Illinois EPA does not know at this point how the area came to be contaminated with solvents, but the source (or sources) is definitely on one or both of these properties. The natural southward movement of groundwater has also moved some of the contaminated groundwater under the neighboring Funway Amusement property.

The investigation revealed that in 1992 The Batavia Concrete Company installed a 700 foot-deep production well (cased only down to 50 feet), capable of pumping at a rate of 200 gallons per minute. The drawing action of this well undoubtedly affected the direction of groundwater flow. Illinois EPA's activities have led to the closing of a route by which contamination from the shallow aquifer may have been drawn down the 700 foot un-cased borehole. In 1998, at the state's urging, Batavia Concrete placed a 400-foot casing in the 700 foot-deep well which should help to protect the deeper groundwater from further contamination.

A less positive effect of the casing project is that now that the production well is cased, its pumping will no longer tend to hold the contamination in place, close to the source area, as it apparently has done in the past. Now that the deep well is no longer drawing water from the 100 to 200 foot levels, the contaminated water at those levels is expected to move in a generally southerly direction, and it might eventually affect other wells in the area.

Noteworthy Facts

The Batavia municipal water supply wells are located up gradient of the SITE and are not affected by the SITE. These wells are monitored on a regular basis.

No private wells, currently used for drinking water, have been found to be contaminated by the SITE.

The Kane County Forest Preserve District groundwater well located south of the SITE does contain very low, but currently safe, levels of contamination that could possibly be attributed to this SITE. This well will be monitored regularly in the future to determine whether the levels of contamination are increasing.

The Montessori Academy has used bottled drinking water for many years and continues to do so. However, it is recommended that their private well be abandoned and the Academy be connected to the City of Batavia municipal water supply.

Groundwater supply wells at Batavia Concrete should not be used as a potable water supply source or for any other direct human activity. Batavia Concrete has a connection in place to the City of Batavia municipal water supply which should be used for those purposes.

Additional groundwater sampling of existing monitoring wells and selected private wells will be performed because there is a potential for movement in the contaminant plumes.

Illinois EPA will continue to explore the feasibility of treatment or removal options of the various contaminated zones at the site.

For Aditional Information

A Repository of documents relevant to this site, including additional copies of all site Fact Sheets, has been established at the Batavia Public Library, at 335 West Wilson (879-1393). As reports on the investigation and its results are completed, they will be added to the Repository.

Please feel free to direct your questions to any of the following: