Today, U.S. EPA published in the Federal Register a direct final Notice of Deletion of the Kerr-McGee Reed-Keppler Park Superfund Site, located in West Chicago, Illinois, from the National Priorities List ("NPL"). The NPL is a statutorily-mandated list of "national priorities among the known releases or threatened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants throughout the United States."  EPA decided to remove the West Chicago site from the NPL after determining that all appropriate response actions have been completed. In the early 1900's, the site was mined as a quarry to provide rock and embankment material for construction of the Chicago, Wheaton and Western Railway (now the Illinois Prairie Path embankment owned by Commonwealth Edison).  Later, the old quarry area was used for solid waste (household and commercial garbage) disposal from as early as 1939 until 1973.  Among the solid wastes found at the site were thorium mill tailings and other process wastes generated at the West Chicago Rare Earths Facility, which also operated in West Chicago from 1934 until 1973. Today's Notice of Deletion is the culmination of a 10-year soil remediation and groundwater monitoring process by EPA. Stay tuned to the Illinois Environmental Law Blog for more news and developments.

Today, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency issued its Air Quality Report for calendar year 2008.  The report reinforces the good news that this blog reported last month (see here and here) that the air quality in Illinois has gotten better. The IEPA reports: "In terms of the Air Quality Index (AQI) air quality during 2008 was either good or moderate 96 percent of the time throughout Illinois.  There were no days when air quality in some part of Illinois was considered Unhealthy (category Red).  This compares with one Unhealthy day in 2007.  There were 14 days (10 for PM2.5 and 4 for the new 8-hour ozone standard) when air quality in some part of Illinois was considered Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (category Orange).  This compares with 24 Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups days reported in 2007. However, based on the new ozone and PM2.5 AQI adjustments implemented in 2008 there would have been 45 Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups days in 2007.  Air quality trends for the criteria pollutants are continuing to show downward trends or stable trends well below the level of the standards.  Percentage changes over the ten year period 1999 – 2008 are as follows: Particulate Matter (PM10) 14 percent decrease, Particulate Matter (PM2.5) 20 percent decrease, Sulfur Dioxide 15 percent decrease, Nitrogen Dioxide 13 percent decrease, Carbon Monoxide 47 percent decrease, Lead 18 percent decrease, and Ozone 12 percent decrease." Stay tuned to the Illinois Environmental Law Blog for more news and developments.

According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, the City of Evanston passed a new "green" ordinance, which requires all new commercial, multifamily and municipal construction projects over 10,000 square feet to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (“LEED”) Silver certification through the U.S. Green Building Council.  The ordinance does not require LEED certification for renovations and rehabilitations on existing buildings, and it exempts building projects that already have been approved by the city. LEED is an "internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across" such metrics as water efficiency, carbon dioxide emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts. The ordinance is part of the city's effort to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.  The city signed the U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement, which pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 7% from the 1990 levels by 2012. Stay tuned to the Illinois Environmental Law Blog for more news and developments.

The U.S. EPA recently published in the Federal Register a final rule entitled "National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants: Area Source Standards for Paints and Allied Products Manufacturing."  The rule establishes management practices for volatile hazardous air pollutants and equipment standards for particulate hazardous air emissions. The rule applies to owners and operators of facilities that perform paint and allied products manufacturing that are area sources of hazardous air pollutant emissions and processes, uses, or generates materials containing benzene, methylene chloride, and compounds of cadmium, chromium, lead, and nickel, in amounts greater than or equal to 0.1 percent by weight.  Paints and allied products manufacturing operations "include the production of paints, inks, adhesives, stains, varnishes, shellacs, putties, sealers, caulks, and other coatings from raw materials, the intended use of which is to leave a dried film of solid material on a substrate." All existing area source facilities subject to this rule are required to comply no later than December 3, 2012.  New sources are required to comply by December 3, 2009 or upon startup of the facility, whichever is later. Among other things, the rule requires "owners or operators of all existing and new affected facilities to operate a particulate control device during the addition of pigments and other solids that contain compounds of cadmium, chromium, nickel, or lead, and during the grinding and milling of pigments and solids that contain compounds of cadmium, chromium, nickel, or lead."  The rule also requires "new and existing affected sources to equip process and storage vessels that store or process materials containing benzene or methylene chloride with covers or lids." The rule also sets initial compliance, continuous compliance, notification, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements. Stay tuned to the Illinois Environmental Law Blog for more news and developments.

Today, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency reported that it notified the Crystal Lake public drinking water supply that "there has been a confirmed detection of groundwater contamination that poses a threat of exposure to the public above the Class I groundwater quality standards." Specifically, IEPA stated that "Trichloroethylene (TCE) has been detected and confirmed in Crystal Lake’s raw (source) and finished (distributed) drinking water at 2.9 parts per billion (ppb). This level does not yet exceed the Class I groundwater quality standard for TCE of 5.0 ppb that both federal and State law allows in drinking water. However, the Right to Know provision of the Environmental Protection Act requires that the public be notified even before this Class I groundwater quality standard is exceeded in their drinking water. "The Environmental Protection Act requires the water supply, and any secondary users, to provide notification to its customers of this contamination by mail, email, post card, text message or telephone, within five business days of official receipt of the Illinois EPA’s notice. The public drinking water supply must provide the Illinois EPA with written proof of the notifications within seven calendar days after they are sent." Stay tuned to the Illinois Environmental Law Blog for more news and developments.

According to an article from the Associated Press, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service discovered a "22-inch immature specimen" of Asian Carp "among tens of thousands of dead fish identified in a fish kill operation in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, about 40 miles from Lake Michigan." The fish kill operation took place while an electric barrier, which was erected to prevent Asian Carp from reaching the Great Lakes, was down for maintenance.  More than 2,000 gallons of a poison called rotenone was dumped into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.  This resulted in "ten of thousands of other species of fish, from gizzard shad to drum" to float to the surface of the waterway.  The kill operation "began Wednesday and was expected to last until Sunday."  At the end of the operation, an expected 200,000 pounds of dead fish will be removed and sent to a landfill. Stay tuned to the Illinois Environmental Law Blog for more news and developments.

Today, the U.S. EPA published in the Federal Register a final rule entitled "National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Area Sources: Asphalt Processing and Asphalt Roofing Manufacturing."  This rule establishes national air emission standards and other requirements for new and existing asphalt processing facilities and asphalt roofing manufacturing facilities. In general, the rule limits the amount of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons ("PAH") that can be emitted during asphalt processing operations and asphalt roofing manufacturing operations.  Owners and operators of existing facilities are required to conduct an initial compliance assessment, to demonstrate initial compliance with the new limits, by May 31, 2011.  Owners and operators of new facilities are required to conduct the initial compliance assessment by June 1, 2010 or within 180 days after startup, whichever is later.  Owners and operators must also demonstrate continuous compliance based upon a 3-hour averaging period. The rule also imposes notification, recordkeeping, and reporting requirements.  For example, each facility must submit an initial notification to U.S. EPA within 120 days of December 2, 2009 and a notification of compliance status within 60 days after completion of the compliance assessment. Stay tuned to the Illinois Environmental Law Blog for more news and developments.