Environmental Progress - Summer 2000

Brownfields Grants To Six Illinois Communities

Goal is to put abandoned or underused properties back into productive use.

Illinois Brownfields Redevelopment Grants totaling more than $420,000 have been awarded to six Illinois communities. The fund will help them evaluate potential contamination and prepare cleanup plans for abandoned or underused industrial and commercial properties.

Illinois EPA Director Tom Skinner announced the grants to Chicago, Downers Grove, Moline, Pittsfield, Skokie and Thornton during the June 6 All Cities Brownfields Conference in Grafton.

Skinner noted that 21 communities now have been awarded grants through the program, which began in July 1998. To date, $1.945 million has been granted for environmental assessments of Illinois brownfields sites. "With up to $120,000 available to each municipality, this assistance can be the catalyst to bring back to productive use sites that have been community eyesores or potential hazards to the citizens and environment," Skinner said.

Director Skinner announced six grant recipients during the conference.

Chicago received the largest grant, $119,368.70, to conduct a study of the concentrations of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) present in surface and subsurface soil to establish statistical and technically defensible area background data for PAHs in the city.

The village of Downers Grove was awarded $119,338, and the city of Moline was awarded $42,195 to carry out Phase II environmental site assessment activities to identify potential soil and/or groundwater contamination from past uses of two locations in both communities. They intend to enter the sites into the Site Remediation Program, if necessary.

Thornton was granted $95,256 to conduct an environmental assessment of an abandoned tax delinquent site previously used as a scrap salvage yard.

The village of Skokie received $33,566 to carry out environmental assessment activities at the former village incinerator site and enter the site in the SRP, if necessary.

Pittsfield was awarded $10,962 to conduct environmental assessment activities at the former Brown Shoe Company factory.

The All Cities Brownfields Conference covered other areas related to brownfields, as well. Workshops allowed those attending to rotate among the different presentations. The workshops provided attendees with information and the opportunity to discuss proposed regulatory amendments to the Site Remediation Program, Leaking Underground Storage Tank program and the Tiered Approach to Corrective Action Objectives program. All three programs regulate properties that have current or potential brownfield sites.

Demolition and disposal issues were presented in another workshop. The difference between construction and demolition debris and clean construction and demolition debris (clean construction and demolition debris may be reused) was explained, and different methods for managing both were discussed.

Another workshop dealt with the cleanup and redevelopment efforts underway at former Department of Defense Sites, including the Green River Ordnance Plant, the Sangamon Ordnance Plant and the Lincoln Depot Ordnance Plant. The munitions sites were used during World War II, as was the Nike Missile Battery SL-10, an anti-aircraft surface-to-air missile battery that protected St. Louis from an air attack. The sites became contaminated during their previous activity and the IEPA is now focusing on cleaning up the contamination so that full reuse of the sites is possible.