Between 1904 and 1933, the St. Louis Smelting and Refining Company operated a lead smelter at the location that is now home to the Collinwoods and Pine Lake subdivisions. The smelting facilitys main building was located near the present intersection of Raintree Trail and Pine Lake Road. Other plant buildings were located in the area presently bounded by Banyon Tree Road, Lemontree Lane and Dogwood Trail. The company produced a variety of lead products including lead ingots, lead sheets and powdered lead. The lead smelting process also resulted in the production of large amounts of lead-bearing waste known as slag. Slag is a mixture of lead and other elements, impurities and ash. Lead slag for this facility was disposed of in large piles on the site. One such pile existed on the south side of Pine Lake Road starting across from the intersection of Lemontree Lane and extending to the Pine Lake Road cul-de-sac.
The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has announced that the former Matthiessen and Hegeler Zinc property has been finalized on the National Priorities List (NPL), which is sometimes called the Superfund list. Matthiessen and Hegeler is the site of a former zinc smelter located in LaSalle, Illinois. The larger image referenced in the fact sheet will be included in a separate pdf attachment.
Between 1969 and 1988, the 47-acre landfill received general refuse and industrial wastes including paint sludge, volatile organic chemicals, asbestos and liquids containing heavy metals. The site was not properly closed and capped, resulting in a 5 to 10-acre depression in the middle of the landfill. This depression collected water, which drained into the landfill, resulting in over one hundred leachate seeps.
In 1992, approximately $150,000 of trust fund money from the bankruptcy was used to alleviate the spread of contamination. In 1994, Federal money was used to conduct a non-time critical removal action which included installation of a six-foot chain link fence; installation of a protective cap over the "Jennite pit"; excavation and disposal of soils around the upright storage tanks and railroad cars and subsequent decontamination and dismantling of those storage vessels; removal and treatment of various on-site waste materials and contaminated soil; and characterization and proper disposal of the material within the drums inside the on-site Transite building. The approximate cost of the non-time critical removal action was $800,000. In 2003 and 2004, Federal monies (approximately $1,200,000) were again used to complete the demolition portion, including asbestos removal, of the selected site remedy and to prepare the site for further remedial action. The 2005 remedial action included extensive remedial activities in the portion of the site located north of 22nd Street, specifically, the removal and hazardous waste disposal of on-site wastes and continued monitoring of the in situ biological groundwater treatment. Remedial activities associated with soil for this northern parcel are essentially completed, and the majority of the groundwater beneath this parcel has been successfully remediated.
In March 1992, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) collected samples in DePue including samples of soil, sediment, and surface water. The information from these samples will be used in making a preliminary evaluation of possible environmental effects of past New Jersey Zinc and Mobil Mining and Minerals operations. Twenty soil samples were collected from residential yards. Three sediment and three surface water samples were collected from Lake DePue and the ditch leading to the lake. Samples were taken as background from Turner Lake and Tiskilwa for comparison. Ten samples were collected from the New Jersey Zinc and Mobil Mining and Minerals site.
Illinois EPA has scheduled the first controlled prairie burn for early to mid-April 2007 (dependent on certain weather conditions) at the former Western Lion/Service Disposal Landfill site. A burn was scheduled for spring of 2005, but was cancelled due to lack of adequate vegetation. The site is located at the intersection of Coles County roads 1100E (Loxa Road) and 900N (Route 316) about 1 miles northeast of Mattoon. The controlled burn, which may take one to three days, is necessary to eliminate accumulated dead vegetation and to stimulate new growth and diversity in the plant life. It will also eliminate invasive plant species, which have shallower root systems than the mix of prairie plants on the landfill cap.
The Western Lion Landfill, approximately 26 acres, is located at the intersection of Coles County roads 1100E (Loxa Road) and 900N (Route 316) and is about 1 miles northeast of Mattoon. The landfill was operated from 1978 until 1996. Various violations were documented by Illinois EPA during its operation. An inspection by Illinois EPA's Champaign field office in 1994 revealed an improper excavation in already-buried waste. The landfill was subsequently closed by an agreed order in January 1996 (Coles County Circuit Court).
Historically, the ditch has received runoff from the former plant property. Because of the nature of past plant operations, the runoff contained high levels of metals that contaminated sediments in the ditch. These contaminated sediments are called "unnatural" sediments.
This fact sheet has been prepared by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA). This fact sheet is intended to address concerns about Lead, Cadmium, Beryllium, Chromium, Arsenic, Mercury and Nickel originating from the coal waste piles at the Monterey No. 2 Mine, near Albers. In addition, the clean up activities being undertaken by Monterey Coal Company (Monterey) and its parent company Exxon- Mobil, to protect the environment will be discussed.
Many of the plant operations took place before most environmental regulations (see chart), so a potential existed for releases to air, water, and land. Preliminary Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) sampling, conducted in 1992 and 1993, indicated the presence of metals in onsite and offsite soil (including residential yards), surface water, and sediments. These metals include arsenic, barium, cadmium, cobalt, copper, lead, manganese, mercury, silver, sodium, and zinc. These metals occur naturally in the environment, but the samples from the facility indicate elevated levels when compared to samples collected from a nearby community. The larger map referenced in the fact sheet will be included as a separate pdf attachment.