News Releases - 2003

Work Begins At Smith-Douglass Site in Streator

Springfield, Ill. -- Through a cooperative effort by state and local agencies and private businesses, cleanup is beginning at the abandoned Smith-Douglass site next week.

The 124-acre site was a fertilizer manufacturing plant when the most recent owner, Smith-Douglass, abandoned it in 1996.

In cooperation with the Illinois EPA, Allied Waste, Inc. plans to mobilize heavy equipment at the site to sort through several thousand tons of scrap and debris that remains on the site and then transport unusable materials to the Streator landfill. Some materials, such as bricks and block, can be stockpiled for later use as clean fill material. With each trip, Allied will return with a load of soil, which will be used to cover the property once cleanup is complete.

"Only through public and private cooperation can we move forward to address the challenges at this orphan site and I am delighted Allied Waste has stepped forward to start the clean up process," said Renee Cipriano, Director of the Illinois EPA.

The agencies, including the Illinois EPA, Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Livingston County, the city of Streator, Newton and Reading Townships, along with Allied Waste and one of the property’s former owners, Borden Chemical, have been working with Sen. Dan Rutherford (R-Chenoa), to find creative solutions to the numerous environmental problems at the site.

"This is great news for Livingston County residents," said Rutherford. "I want to thank everyone involved with this cleanup process for working together toward developing a solution. It is imperative that we begin remedial action as soon as possible; and, with the state's budget crisis, solutions such as this both speed up the process and bring down the cost."

The current work is being performed in the northern portion of the property, known as Area 1. On this 30-acrea area, partially demolished buildings still exist from the former industrial complex, along with some waste areas.

Additional problems at the Smith-Douglass site are in Area 2, where a weakened berm is holding back the northwest side of an acidic pond on the site, called Fresh Pond. A feasibility study is planned for Area 3, an eight-acre on-site landfill, to determine the best course of action.

The State of Illinois administratively sealed the site in 1988, and it will remain sealed until the cleanup work has been completed.