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EPA plans community meeting on hazardous waste site

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to hold a community meeting in a few weeks to discuss cleanup efforts at a hazardous waste site on the northeast side of Carbondale.

Brianna Bill, community involvement coordinator for the EPA, said the meeting will take place in late October or early November, but the date hasn't been set.

Bill said the EPA plans to invite representatives from the Illinois Department of Public Health, the Illinois EPA and Beazer East to listen to the concerns of community members and answer questions.

Beazer East, the company that bought the Koppers Wood Treatment Company facility at 1555 N. Marion St in 1988, began a cleanup effort at the contaminated site in August. The EPA is monitoring the cleanup.

Carolyn Bury, the EPA project manager assigned to the cleanup, said excavation to relocate a creek containing contaminated groundwater began in May 2004. The project is scheduled for completion in the fall of 2005, Bury said.

Bury said construction was delayed a few months because Beazer East had to purchase land adjacent to the site.

Koppers began producing railroad ties at the site in 1905, treating the wood with creosote. An unknown quantity of creosote was spilled at the site between 1905 and the early 1980s, and the Illinois EPA began investigating the facility in 1981.

Since then, the EPA became involved and is now leading the cleanup project while Beazer East picks up the estimated $10.8 million tab.

The EPA determined soil at the site contains high levels of wood-treating compounds, including benzo(a)pyrene, a carcinogen. Documents obtained from the EPA identify benzo(a)pyrene as "the chemical compound most associated with excessive risk from soil exposure at this facility."

Surface soils in the former processing area have high levels of contamination, Bury said, and will be covered with asphalt as part of the 12-step cleanup process to eliminate any exposure risk to the community.

The wood-treating compounds can be absorbed into the body through direct contact with the skin, inhalation and ingestion.

Robert Ollie, a former Koppers employee, was one of about 20 people who attended a community meeting Saturday at Thomas School to discuss the waste site.

He said he suffered skin irritations and respiratory problems while operating machinery to extract railroad ties from the treatment cylinders.

"I used to cough up stuff all the time," Ollie said. "That creosote would take the skin off you. For two or three days, you would shed skin like a snake."

 

 

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