DePue’s village president and lawyer skeptical about contamination clean up plans

While efforts to clean up potentially contaminated yards in DePue are finally moving forward, it’s not without a fair amount of pushback from village officials.

Wednesday night, members of the Illinois EPA were in DePue discussing two plans for cleaning up contaminated soil in the village. The source of the contamination was the New Jersey Zinc plant, which was then owned by Exxon and CBS. The IEPA’s plan involves testing the soil in every yard, and removing and replacing entire sections of yard found to be contaminated.

Village President Eric Bryant says he’s happy to see things finally moving forward. However he described the acceptable levels for some chemicals, arsenic in particular, as “disturbing.” Then, Nancy Loeb, who is legally representing DePue, harshly criticized other aspects of the plan. In particular, she said the lead standard the IEPA used was “insufficient and out-of-date.”

IEPA officials said they will release a statement to the objections raised by Bryant and Loeb in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, if you want to comment, you have until July 14th.
You can learn more about how to submit your comments by going to the IEPA’s website.