News Releases - 2000

Nicor Mercury Disposal Investigation: Update 4

Springfield, Ill. -- Illinois Environmental Protection Agency investigators today observed mercury present in a basement utility room in a hospital in Downers Grove, in a maintenance shop for a retirement home in Niles, and in a utility room at a factory in Cicero.

Illinois EPA investigators are observing cleanup activity and taking air vapor readings for mercury at non-residential facilities identified by Nicor this week. Nicor submitted a list of about 250 facilities that potentially had manometers containing mercury, an older gas line pressure reading device, to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency earlier this week. The company has indicated that Nicor workers have made initial visits to all of the facilities to visually check for the presence of manometers or mercury. Illinois EPA also went to 11 of those sites earlier this week and found no manometers or visible mercury present.

"Nicor is under tremendous pressure to do cleanups quickly but it must be done in a manner that protects public health. Therefore, we will continue to check these locations as much as possible," said Illinois EPA Director Tom Skinner.

Illinois EPA investigators had air mercury detections and observed several remaining beads of mercury on the floor, on a table and on pipes in a locked basement gas meter room at Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove today.

Nicor had indicated one of their contractors had cleaned the room Wednesday and the contractor did additional cleaning today after the Illinois EPA visit. No mercury levels at the entrance or at breathing zone level were detected in the air.

At St. Andrew Home in Niles, mercury readings were also detected in a separate maintenance building by Illinois EPA, after a first cleanup the previous day. A second cleanup was performed today.

No manometers were found at St. Andrew or Good Samaritan.

At Kropp Forge in Cicero, Illinois EPA also had air mercury readings after a cleanup crew hired by Nicor removed a manometer from a locked utility room. The crew was scheduled to do a followup cleanup.

Illinois EPA will revisit all three facilities on Friday to do further inspection and meter readings.

U.S. EPA visited other industrial facilities identified by Nicor as containing visible mercury.

So far, Nicor has identified nine non-residential facilities where potential mercury was observed.

Both Illinois EPA and U.S. EPA have asked Nicor to provide advance notice so the agencies can send personnel to observe any further cleanups at the non-residential facilities. Mercury samples are also being taken whenever possible.

Illinois EPA will continue to monitor mercury cleanup activities at other non-residential sites as information becomes available.