March 13, 2006
Amy C. Antoniolli
Hearing Officer
Illinois Pollution Control Board
100 West Randolph, Suite 11-500
Chicago, Illinois 60601
Bernadette Dinschel
4713 Elm Street
Lisle, Illinois 60532-1981
(630) 969-1631
Subject
R06-23
Standards and Requirements for Potable Water Well Surveys and for Community
Relations Activities Performed in Conjunction with Agency Notices of Threats from
Contamination
.
Ms. Antoniolli
:
As a citizen I am prefiling testimony for the first hearing on March 28, 2006, about
Community Relation Activities in Conjunction with Agency Notices of Threats from
Contamination
.
Sincerely,
Bernadette Dinschel
RECEIVED
CLER 'S OFFICE
MAR 1 4 2006
STATE OF ILLINOIS
Pollution Control Board
RECEIVED
Testimony before the IPCB
- Bernadette Dinschel - March 13, 2006
CLERKS
OFFICE
MAR 1 4 2006
STATE OF ILLINOIS
The Village of Lisle in Illinois sent out a letter to residents announcing the Augutiggtiobcgntrol Board
Village Board Meeting open to the public
.
The Village often does this . The agenda for the
evening included a petition by The Lockformer Company, 711 Ogden Avenue, to amend the
Village of Lisle ground water ordinance to restrict potable (drinkable) groundwater use
.
Lockformer was requesting that future wells not be drilled within 2500 feet of the Lockformer
facility. They defined this district as a possible area of contamination
.
I live within the defined
district. They were acting as a good neighbor, they said
. They assured the Village Trustees
and the audience that data collected from monitoring wells on their property indicated levels of
TCE that did not pose a threat and that TCE never left their property . Trust me the consulting
engineer said . The Village Board had every intention of voting to approve the petitioner's
request that evening. They did not understand the audience concern
but were willing to
postpone the vote and have the Village Engineer review the data
.
It was written in background information to the Village of Lisle on June 28, 2000 that
"throughout it's history, Lockformer caused or allowed a chlorinated chemical solvent,
trichloroethylene (TCE), to be released to the environment from an above-ground storage tank
and/or a degreasing pit, which resulted in hazardous waste contamination to soil and
groundwater." Also, "Since circa 1990, Lockformer has conducted ongoing site activities to
investigate the nature and extent of the contamination
.
In 1998 the site was entered into the
Illinois Site Remediation Program (SRP ; 35 IAC 740) to obtain Illinois Environmental Protection
Agency (IEPA) review and evaluation with the ultimate intent of obtaining a 'No Further
Remediation' (NFR) letter ."
About a year after the Village of Lisle Board Meeting, the IEPA and the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) determined that TCE was present in private wells
over a distance of at least three miles from its source
. At the source, nearly eleven years after
Lockformer began investigating its site, TCE levels were unacceptable
.
For ten or more years responsible parties, including Lockformer and its supplier, consulting
engineering firms, state employees and local officials knew of the
contamination or suspected
contamination. No one informed private well owners or users
.
Everyone was playing by the
rules. It is my opinion that responsible individuals representing areas of possible
contamination did not notify because they were not required
to notify, they did not have the
authority to notify or they did not want to notify
.
IEPA needed citizen input on its Right To Know (RTK) Subcommittee
. Others and I were
asked to participate. Since December 9, 2004 the content of a notice and the best way to
deliver that notice has been discussed
.
In June 2005 recommendations by the RTK
Subcommittee were organized to notify residents of Steger, Illinois. Well locations were
identified, heads of households notified, and residents, interested parties and RTK
Subcommittee members met in Steger to exchange information . The Subcommittee found that
private well locations could be identified with a good degree of accuracy. We also found that it
is possible to retrieve the names and addresses of people in
the affected area. We learned
that notification expenses could be managed . We learned a lot
.
Testimony before the IPCB
- Bernadette Dinschel
- March 13, 2006
I ask that this Board act on behalf of property owners and occupants and require that notice be
given to property owners and occupants without exception. Public Act 94-314 Title VI-D is an
act about safety. It is a reasonable and practicable matter that anyone drinking from a
contaminated water well receives direct notice. This Board can require the contact list under
Section 1505.310 .b.1 to include without exception equal notice to property owners and
occupants. Occupants cannot be put at risk because of absentee owners, irresponsible
landlords or a perceived inconvenience to the Agency or named responsible party giving
notice
.
After and because of the Lockformer incident, lawmakers acted perhaps in haste and left out
the most important stakeholders, people like you and I who just turn on the tap and expect a
safe glass of drinking water. TCE is a known carcinogen . I live in apartment #2 . I am a
landlord. I drank the well water in the affected area for ten years . My health was seriously
compromised. This testimony is not only about my experience in Lisle but about what happens
in the future . This Board can choose to uphold the intent of the law to protect the public from
unsafe water wells by requiring that equal notice be given to property owners and occupants
.
cc
Mark Wright, Kimberly Geving & Stefanie Diers
Assistant Counsel
Illinois EPA
1021 N. Grand Avenue East
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield, IL 62794-9276
William G. Dickett
Sidley & Austin
One South Dearborn
Suite 2800
Chicago, IL 60603
Katherine Hodge, Executive Director
Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group
3150 Roland Avenue
Springfield, IL 62703
Kenneth W . Liss, L.P.G .
Andrews Environmental Engineering, Inc
.
3535 Mayflower Blvd
.
Springfield, IL 62707
Eric Portz and Jerry Dalsin
Illinois Department of Public Health
Division of Environmental Health
525 W. Jefferson Street
Springfield, IL 62761
