Environmental Progress - Fall 1998

Citizen Action Helps Avoid Substantial Danger

$35,000 drum removal carries no direct costs for Illinois taxpayers.

On Sept. 28, 1997, a citizen saw a semi- trailer truck arrive at a house in Hopkins Park, Kankakee County, and start unloading what would turn out to some 90 fifty-five gallon drums of waste. The citizen was convinced this was not a normal delivery, and called police.

After obtaining a search warrant, inspectors from the Illinois EPA's Maywood field operations section discovered that some of the drums were damaged, rusted or deteriorated. Some were open and others were leaking their contents. Maywood field operations inspectors took samples of some of the drums to determine their contents, with results showing that the material was hazardous waste, creating a situation requiring quick action to prevent additional harm to the environment.

Investigation revealed that the resident living in the property where the drums had been delivered had allegedly entered into an agreement with an Indiana resident to ship the drums from Indiana to Illinois and temporarily store them at the Hopkins Park property. These activities violated various provisions of the Environmental Protection Act including conducting a hazardous and non-hazardous waste storage operation without a permit, receiving hazardous waste without a manifest, and open dumping. Consequently, with the assistance of the Attorney General's Office (AGO), a civil complaint was filed in the Circuit Court of Kankakee County. In addition to Eddie Farr, occupant of the Hopkins Park property, several persons with an ownership interest in the property were named as defendants in the complaint.

Because some of the drums contained flammable paint and/or paint-related waste material posing a substantial danger to the health, safety and welfare of nearby residents as well as a substantial danger to the environment, a motion for immediate and preliminary injunction was also filed with the court.

On Jan. 9, 1998, Judge Fred S. Carr entered an agreed court order requiring two of the defendants, Farr and George Duguay, to hire a contractor, overpack the leaking and deteriorated drums, perform various testing on the wastes and remove and properly dispose of the drums and their contents. The court order also required the defendants to have soil samples taken to verify that all waste that had leaked from the drums had been removed.

The cleanup was completed by the end of March at a cost in excess of $35,000.

The willingness of a citizen to "get involved" and prompt response by personnel from Maywood field staffers Mark Retzlaff, Gino Bruni and Cliff Gould resulted in a substantial danger to human health and the environment being avoided and removal and disposal of approximately 90 drums of waste at no direct cost to the citizens of Illinois.

Gould, Maywood regional manager, summed it up: "Once again, cooperative effort by the Illinois EPA and the AGO have resulted in removal of wastes by responsible parties without having to spend taxpayer dollars. These actions should be pursued whenever possible to assure that, as the Environmental Protection Act states, "adverse effects upon the environment are fully considered and borne by those who cause them.' "

Civil investigation is continuing against other responsible parties residing in Indiana.