Environmental Progress - Fall 2000

Murphysboro Residents Agree To Sell Properties To Railroad

Sales will allow cleanup to proceed

The Summer 2000 issue of Progress carried a story about the planned relocation of residents in a mobile home subdivision in Murphysboro as a preliminary to a U.S. EPA remediation project there. Recently, all property owners in the Meadows of Murphy subdivision reached agreement with the Canadian National Railway to sell their properties. Property owners began moving from the site in September.

The property on which the subdivision was located is contaminated by lead from earlier railyard operations. Contamination on these residential properties was discovered during a Site Remediation Program investigation on the adjacent Greenberg Salvage Yard site. Battery plates and other debris were found at the salvage yard, suggesting that lead contamination in this area might have been from battery cracking at the junkyard, in addition to operations at the railyard. The salvage yard properties have been sealed by the Illinois EPA.

Due to the significance of the contamination on the properties and the estimated cost of the cleanup, the facility was referred to U.S. EPA for cleanup and oversight. U.S. EPA agreed to take over the project as a "federal removal action." This allows them to prioritize soil removal, with continued support of the Illinois EPA. The U.S. EPA categorized the project as a "time critical removal," which allowed them to expedite the cleanup. The U.S. EPA began the removal action on the former Greenburg salvage yard in late October and expected to complete this phase of the remediation by the end of December.

While priority was given to the areas with the greatest potential risk to the public in Murphysboro, both the Illinois EPA and the U.S. EPA feel the potential for contamination exists throughout the entire Mobile and Ohio Railroad property.

Illinois EPA is continuing its CERCLA investigation on the parcels south of the subdivision, on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad property, and will report these findings to the residents and the city as they become available. Discussions with Potentially Responsible Parties are ongoing.