News Releases - 2000

Nicor Mercury Disposal Investigation: Update 2

Springfield, Ill. -- An Illinois Environmental Protection Agency team today, assisted by hazardous waste contractor Clean Harbors, Inc., revisited Berlinsky Iron in Joliet today and opened eight mercury type regulators from gas meters and found evidence of mercury in all of them. The scrapyard was previously identified by Nicor Corp. as one of several salvage facilities where the regulators had been sent as scrap metal. Five of the regulators had intact visible mercury and high air meter readings indicated the three others also still contained some mercury.

Also today, mercury levels of concern were recorded in the air at three of 11 Nicor service centers that were inspected by Illinois EPA for the presence of mercury-type regulators. At the Ingleside (1201 E. Rte. 134) service center, a reading of .434 milograms per cubic meter for mercury in the air was recorded at a general refuse dumpster. Nicor was asked not to allow the removal of the dumpster refuse until further investigation. At the Shorewood (1111 Cottage St.) service center, mercury air readings of .326 were registered in a container outside the facility. At the Prospect Heights (45 E. Palatine Road) center, a dumpster containing regulators had a 0.021 reading. Illinois EPA will re-inspect the facilities and monitor any appropriate cleanup activities.

Zero air readings for mercury were recorded at the perimeter of the sites visited today, indicating no hazard to the general public.

Sending regulators still containing mercury to scrapyards violates federal and state hazardous waste handling laws and regulations.

The mercury detections at Berlinsky follows an inspection last week at Chicago Heights Steel and Iron, where eight of 10 regulators that were opened still had mercury inside them.

The Illinois EPA/Clean Harbors personnel will return on Thursday to DeKalb Iron and Metal (DeKalb) and Newtson Iron (Ottawa). They were the only two scrapyards among 11 visited on Tuesday that appeared to have the mercury type regulators. The regulators at those facilities will also be sampled and opened to determine if they still contain mercury.

Another Illinois EPA team today monitored removal of regulators from a roll-off box at the Nicor Bellwood Service Center. Air monitor readings at the box recorded on Sept. 2 in a previous IEPA inspection raised concerns. A cracked regulator in the container will be handled as hazardous waste and the container will be decontaminated to prevent vaporization.

At the Crestwood Service Center, where mercury levels in the area recorded on Sept. 2 also were of concern, two of 178 regulators inspected in a container were determined to be mercury type. One of them when opened still contained mercury and the other could not be opened.

Illinois EPA will continue to inspect other Nicor service centers this week.