Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

A massive failure on every possible level

Posted in:

Illinois

* This story about vinyl chloride in south suburban Crestwood’s drinking water is pretty horrific. You can read the initial Tribune piece by clicking here if you’re unfamiliar with the situation. Here’s today’s Tribune update…

In a statement released Monday, Illinois EPA Director Doug Scott said “the public’s health never was at risk” because the well water was diluted with treated Lake Michigan water. But one of the chemicals found in Crestwood’s well, vinyl chloride, is so toxic that the U.S. EPA says there is no safe level of exposure.

Crestwood told state regulators in 1986 that the village would get all of its tap water from Lake Michigan and would use the well only in an emergency. But records show Crestwood routinely kept drawing well water, relying on it for up to 20 percent of the village’s supply some months.

The well was finally shut off in December 2007, after the EPA tested the water for the first time in more than two decades. The agency found not only that the well still was contaminated but that Crestwood had been piping the water, untreated, to residents. […]

Before the Tribune story in Sunday’s editions, the only public hint that something might be wrong with Crestwood’s water was an Aug. 13 news release from the Illinois Department of Public Health. In the release, the agency warns that vinyl chloride might have contaminated private wells in the area, but it does not mention that village officials for years been adding contaminated water to the municipal water supply.

The SouthtownStar has more…

Crestwood Mayor Robert Stranczek did not return calls seeking comment Monday.

His father, Chester Stranczek, who served as mayor for 38 years before his son took the post, said he could not go into details about the water supply under his administration without consulting an attorney.

“But I can tell you that it was and is being tested,” he said when reached at his home in Florida. “I can guarantee you the well was being tested regarding IEPA rules and time lines. Even more.”

The former mayor, 78, has sipped on Crestwood tap water since he was born there.

“As far as the water being contaminated I don’t believe that,” he said. “Reports showed it was drinkable. Tests that were taken never showed that we had bad water.”

That’s some serious denial.

* The Kankakee Daily Journal has an editorial today about another major problem ignored by local and state officials…

Back in 1988, a Shell Oil pipeline broke, spilling gasoline into the soil and water table in Limestone Township.

Here we are in 2009, 21 years later. County chairmen have come and gone. State governments have come and gone. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, surely a toothless watchdog in this case, has yet to come up with the critical solution for Limestone residents.

That would be the construction of public water lines to carry unquestionably clean drinking water to the residents of Limestone Township.

You see, once the gasoline spilled into the soil, it occurred to such an extent that the volume would not easily break down. It will remain, toxic and treacherous, for the lifetime of anyone in its path.

Back in 2007, when Shell finally settled the case, it agreed to $46 million in compensation. Part of that was slated to build new water lines. But there was no timetable for completion. Those lines were promised in 2005.

They are still not there. Nor is there a firm date when they will arrive.

Sheesh.

* Related…

* Kadner: Mom feels betrayed by Crestwood officials

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 10:34 am

Comments

Back in 2007, when Shell finally settled the case, it agreed to $46 million in compensation.

And they settled with whom? Surely not Lisa M? If so, why did not the settlement include Shell arranging for the water lines, and the cost to be deducted from the settlement?

Comment by Pat collins Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 10:39 am
Off topic, but on page: I’m not against advertising, but that “End School Overcrowding” spot is close to seizure-inducing.

Comment by Sewanee Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 11:00 am
lol

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 11:01 am
Black Water - Doobie Brothers. Enhanced by VanillaMan

Well, I built me a house in Crestwood, hopin’
Ol’ city well, she’s pumpin’ just the same
Vinyl chloride’s a’ jumpin’
But that city keeps pumpin’
Crestwood keeps pumpin’ that toxins just the same

Old black water, no need for boilin’
Crestwood water, keeps the tumors growin’ on me
Old black water, no need for mixin’
The Illinois EPA watchin’ out for me
Old black water, kinda tastey,
You can add it to your lawnmower, cuz gas ain’t free

Yeah, it glows like moonlight
Don’t drink too much, pretty mama
Cuz it’ll keep you up all night
Da Mayor ain’t got no worries
‘Cause Crestwood knows nothin’ at all

If it rains, vinyl chloride don’t care
Don’t make no difference to it
Dat water’s so toxic, you just cannot drown
Yeah, I’d live in funky Crestwoodland
Come on over, the waters fine,
And I’ll be buyin’ ev’rybody drinks all ‘roun’

Old black water, ain’t in Florida,
So the Stranczeks, don’t hafta drink it.
Crestwood water, perfect for sippin’
The Illinois EPA watchin’ out for me
Crestwood water, you can burn it,
It would to be used only in an emergency.

Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 11:07 am
There are a lot of ifs ands or buts in the Tribune story. However the essence is whether or not the municipal entity knowingly used a contaminated source to increase the volume of the water supplied for drinking purposes.

When the companies in China put melamine in the animal food supply, there was an immediate call for monetary and criminal charges.

If the Tribune story is accurate, the entire elected body of Crestwood as well as the staff involved in the water treatment process should be waiting for an indictment.

Is there someone in Lisa Madigan’s office going to do some work on this?

Comment by Plutocrat03 Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 11:43 am
Both stories are simply abominable. I wonder if a refrigerator water filter or a Brita system could effectively filter out vinyl chloride? It would be interesting to determine just how many cancer cases come from Crestwood.

They have a similar water problem in Naplate in LaSalle County and in the Lockformer plant in Lisle. Those incidents are allegedly perpatrated by business corporations not municipal corporations. The governmental link involved in Crestwood somehow makes it even worse to me.

Comment by Jake from Bellwood Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 11:57 am
If blame is being asserted against IEPA, has anyone looked into how much its budget has been slashed over the last six years under Blago? Same issue with IDNR. How can we expect the agencies that are supposed to protect the public if they are not funded?

Just askin’.

Comment by Team America Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 12:13 pm
I can write at length about these sorts of issues, but I will try to be concise.

Yes, it appears to me that the Village of Crestwood would have known that it was providing contaminated water to its residents. This raises the possibility that the Village was violating the requirements to provide reliable drinking water information to its residents in an annual Consumer Confidence Report.

No, vinyl chloride will not be removed by a Brita or refrigerator filter. Organic compounds are not caught by a filter–too small.

Yes, Lisle (and Downers Grove, and Batavia) have significant groundwater contamination beneath them. These water departments and municipalities have made sound decisions and strategies to avoid exposure. Crestwood did not. As soon as the issue arose 2-30 years ago, anyone involved was told that this situation would not resolve itself, and the VC would be present for a LONG time.

Yes, the Illinois EPA is understaffed and overworked. The right-to-know legislation that is mentioned would not raise this issue since it appears that the well was being used inappropriately. Also, there are still plenty of gaps in the rule–an old contaminated site (like the drycleaner) not being actively managed by the Bureau of Land may not have gone through the vetting process of a few years ago, for example.

All of these types of wells used to be analyzed more regularly when the state was run better.

All in all, it seems to me a criminal act has taken place since all the water operators I know are extremely conscious of the product they provide to their customers. None of them would ever have allowed this to happen.

Comment by Lefty Lefty Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 1:09 pm
No, vinyl chloride will not be removed by a Brita or refrigerator filter. Organic compounds are not caught by a filter–too small

Actually, granular activated charcoal AND Packed Tower Aeration is the approved EPA method to remove it. So, Britta alone won’t do it, but it’s not that hard for Crestwood to have done so.

Makes it all the worse…..

Comment by Pat collins Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 1:26 pm
Sewanee, I asked that they slow the gif down a bit and it appears to have been accomplished. Hope you don’t have a seizure.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 1:33 pm
Pat C-

Yep. Or they could have just used the lake water. The region uses a billion gallons a day of the stuff; Crestwood probably uses about 1-2 million a day. Maybe they billed the community for all lake water and pocketed the extra…?

Comment by Lefty Lefty Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 1:37 pm
former Crestwood Mayor Chester Stranczek was an anti-government anti-tax mayor. What people like him fail to realize is that sometimes there are very good reasons why we have big bureaucratic agencies like the EPA and there are reasons why we regulate drinking water.

Stranczek alone should bear the responsibility for this act. He ruled that town with an iron fist and ran a “tight ship,” so tight that he would rather save money than use cleaner water.

People from that area know this to be true. Crestwood residents may love their property tax rebates, but what he did to get that money was essentially under-fund his local schools and other normal government services.

I was angry to read this story (I drank some of that water), but not at all surprised.

Comment by Hon. Cranial Lamb Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 1:50 pm
Tax rebates, but poisoned drinking water? Yeah, that’s good government.

Seriously, all politics aside, what sort of person would knowingly participate in something like this?

Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 2:19 pm
Haha, thanks Rich. Now make sure nobody uses any spiraling circles for hypnotism either.

Comment by Sewanee Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 2:46 pm
IEPA tested in 1987. Crestwood told IEPA that it would use the water only for emergency situations. Th Tribune did not say whether IEPA asked the Village or if the Village was required to report to IEPA when or if it was used.

IEPA did not test the well until 2007. lt told Crestwood there were carcinogens at unacceptable levels. Crestwood then shut down the well.

Dry cleaners by state regulation are to have abandoned the old inexpensive cleaning fluid and replace it with newer non carcinogen fluid. Each store was required to do its own clean up and submit to state inspection In the absence of the store, the shopping cener owner was held responsible. What was the status of that inspection?

Comment by Truthful James Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 2:46 pm
The well is listed as “abandoned” at the IEPA’s website. It should have never been used after 1987 since the village knew it was contaminated.

The drycleaner regulations arose well after the suspected source of the solvent was identified and then ignored. The owner probably got a $1,000,000 cleanup estimate in 1986 and walked away. Once this stuff is in the ground, it will be a constant threat for decades. I bet it’s a drop-off site now.

Comment by Lefty Lefty Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 3:12 pm
Doug Scott?? What in his training or education qualifies him to speak authoritatively on what chemicals are safe your or my drinking water?? He is a lawyer, former state rep & former mayor who lost re-election after 1 term.
http://www.epa.state.il.us/director/

Comment by North of I-80 Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 4:17 pm
Lefty, lefty –

But Crestwood told the IEPA that they would be using it if neded. How could IEPA put it down as abandoned? Did they even mark on the map the groundwater contamination which was there? Where did they think that went?

Comment by Truthful James Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 4:31 pm
Not so easy to remove as the max level allowed is 2 parts per billion

United States Patent 4228273

Abstract:
Vinyl chloride is removed from an aqueous dispersion that contains 5%-50% by weight of a vinyl chloride resin and 1000-15,000 ppm of vinyl chloride by a process in which the aqueous dispersion is contacted first with steam and vinyl acetate to remove at least 90% of the vinyl chloride from it and then, after a short conditioning period, with steam to reduce its monomer content to less than 10 ppm.

Comment by Plutocrat03 Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 4:41 pm
“What people like him fail to realize is that sometimes there are very good reasons why we have big bureaucratic agencies like the EPA and there are reasons why we regulate drinking water.”

That bureaucratic environment is actually a large part of the problem. Each municipality run potable water system (drinking water) has to be in compliance with IEPA standards, which are really federal EPA standards. You get to do extensive water testing, and send in extensive, detailed reports (used to be 2-3 times per year, wouldn’t be at all surprised if frequency has increased), and from experience at signing off on those wretched things, those “tomes” told everything everybody ever wanted to know in at least 16 different ways about how water treatment, wells, transmission, etc., etc., etc. was going for the selected governmental entity.

I mean - these reports were literally mind numbing in size, detail, and complexity - Not to mention the expense in preparation.

The fact that this situation happened for Crestwood - not at all surprised. One time about 8 years ago, I remember asking our District Engineer (who really knew his business, better than most of the folks back then at IEPA) what the folks at IEPA actually did with all this stuff which we (both he & I) were signing our lives away on? He rolled his eyes, told me they carefully log that the report was filed, carefully index and send the reports down for storage, and occasionally they would even look at them. However, with the exception of a very few individuals (that was back then, completely unlikely for anybody around today), the likelihood they would understand the reports was not high.

Sorry, but this one’s every bit as much on IEPA and IDPH.

Comment by Judgment Day Is On The Way Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 4:47 pm
I believe that the “abandoned” and “emergency” labels put on the well placed it into a category allowing it to not be sealed, but not to be used whenever the village felt like it. (Truly abandoned wells must be sealed within 30 days of the end of use.) The village had a responsibility to keep the well in working order but not to use it without IEPA permission. I believe.

IDPH has little or nothing to do with public water supplies. That is one of the big reasons that the right-to-know law was passed–to get these agencies to communicate environmental issues to each other.

All of the monitoring data is online; you can look up the Crestwood data in about 2 minutes at the IEPA website. It is quite simple to review, and you can call your local college or consultant to help you interpret it if you need to. Every person I know at water departments, IEPA, IDPH, DNR, etc. can understand this stuff. It is not that difficult.

The truth is that there are tens if not hundreds of spills in Illinois that may pose threats to water supplies, and the owners of these public water supplies are required to monitor these spills to ensure they do not get into the pumped water. (Actually within the regulated zone around the well, called a setback zone or a regulated recharge area.) With the little info I have I would put the blame 80-100% on the village, 0-20% on the IEPA.

Comment by Lefty Lefty Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 7:13 pm
Rich, the Kankakee Journal editorial leaves out a great many facts, as is their habit. Here is what I remember.
Shell began cleanup efforts immediately, and continues today.
Initial litigation between Shell and the Attorney General and local States Attorney resulted in fines and the order to install 2 additional miles of water lines, with anyone being hooked up whose well tested above agreed upon levels.
The more recent litigation was a private class-action. $46 million settlement, about $22 million to property owners for expenses and loss of real estate value, (about half of which has been paid out)and about $24 million to install the water lines throughout about a third of the township, and hook up everybody in that area. Shell had already paid to have some water lines installed back in ‘91 or so.
Lawyers and governments move slowly, but engineers are pretty deliberate as well. Property owners can be stubborn about selling easements. The first phase (2 miles of water line from the first litigation) is ready to start. The rest of the area won’t start for at least another year, but there is movement. Any resident who has a contaminated well, if not already hooked up to a water line, is being provided water.
I’m not defending Shell, I’m glad they are paying, and I agree the whole process has taken too long to get to where we are.

Comment by Farmer Jack Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 7:26 pm
Let’s not scare people. The allowable level of vinyl chloride in drinking water is 2 parts per billion (PPB). That’s in US and Illinois regulations. I’m assuming that the blended Crestwood water is less than that, or it would have been in the story. True that there’s ‘no safe level’, but if under 2 PPB, there’s almost no chance of a threat to human health. Your bottled water could legally have that much.

Not to say this blending was OK. Probably rises to the criminal violation level.

Comment by Bobs yer Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 7:33 pm
After reading the Environmental Rights provision in the Illinois Constitution, Article XI, can the Illinois EPA or the IDPH explain what efforts they undertook to enforce the Environmental Rights of Crestwood citizens. Specifically what did IEPA do to ensure that Crestwood residents were not exposed to PCE? Further, the Right to Know Law that Lt. Pat Quinn supported and Village of Lisle residents helped pass, why was that law not honored by IEPA personnel? Wasn’t that law triggered and meant to protect Crestwood residents from PCE exposure?

Should the General Assembly, Governor Quinn and/or the Illinois Attorney General join Congressman Rush and support refering the Crestwood matter to USEPA for further handling? That appears to one of the keys to success in the Lisle Lockformer groundwater situation, after IEPA “dropped the ball” in the Lisle matter.

If EPA personnel continue to perform as they did in Lisle, Downers Grove, Crestwood, Limestone Township, etc., would we be better off without an IEPA? What grade does the EPA deserve?

Or perhaps we should rededicate their building in Springfield to Environmental “POLLUTION” Agency.

Comment by helpcrestwood Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 7:47 pm
helpcrestwood: even better idea….cut their health care and charge them more for it. Then they’ll quit (oh boy!) just don’t wait by the phone for the feds. may take a while.

Comment by Bobs yer Tuesday, Apr 21, 09 @ 8:27 pm
IEPA and IDPH are full of hacks that carry their party’s water, even the so-called scientists. Step out of line and you get hurt at these agencies. Error on the side of government, not the people is their modus operandi. Keep your head down and pretend all is well so you can keep your job.

Comment by Environmentalist Wednesday, Apr 22, 09 @ 2:31 am
i lived in crestwood since 1961 to 1988 in 1995 iwas told i h ad non hogkins lymphoma acancer that develops in the lymph nodes my lymphoma developed in my lung . the cancer doctor was amazed he said it dont belong in the lung ihad keymo and it went into remission it returned and i had keymo again iam in remission again non i have a new problem i have cells cloning themselves my cancer dr is having aproblem figuring out what is happening this time its in my stomach i am now taking test to find out ! idont know how i developed this there is no cancer in my family

Comment by marge breidigan Thursday, Apr 23, 09 @ 1:09 pm