From today's News-Gazette:
Kennedy & Madonna is currently representing about 20 property owners in the Oakwood area who live near a fly-ash landfill.
Madonna said he had been speaking with Claudia Lennhoff, executive director of Champaign County Health Care Consumers. Lennhoff is active in the Fifth and Hill Neighborhood Rights Campaign that has formed to represent residents who live near the former coal-gas site near Fifth and Hill streets.
"We've been speaking with Claudia and looking over documents the past few weeks to see if there's anything we can do to assist the community," he said. "I will be in town April 10."
It's too early to say what type of legal challenge the firm might make if it does become involved, he said.
He said there are thousands of former coal-gas manufacturing sites across the country that are in need of environmental cleanup.
"The potential for off-site contamination is a definite possibility and is something the residents should be concerned about," Madonna said. "The question is how far off site it's gone and to what extent are residents are being exposed and have been exposed to contaminants."
The 3.5-acre site – between Fifth and Sixth streets and Washington and Church streets – is owned by AmerenIP. The utility is expected this week to begin extensive testing, including soil borings and drilling monitoring wells, of the neighborhood surrounding the site to determine how far off site contamination has traveled.
AmerenIP officials have said they hope to begin a multimillion dollar cleanup of the site by next year.
Discuss.
It's Erin Brockovich all over again
We will all pay for this mind you. I propose a law that all such legal work be done pro-bono, no cut for the attorneys in the settlement.
I guess no local Law firms do this kind of work... Oh I forgot this is Champaign-Urbana where they only use out of town, Way out of town consultants and lawyers, contractors etc. It would probably be cheaper to buy every house in the neighborhood and do nothing but put up a fence and wait 40 years then build a park on the site, That is just the what Champaign Park Dist. has in mind for the old US 150 landfill. There is stuff buried in there that would have been banned from landfills after the EPA was created.
Gregg-
"On July 25, 2007 a joint meeting was held, at which time the two bodies discussed the possible development of a master plan for reuse of the site of the former municipal landfill as a community park. Concerns were expressed about whether the process to close the former landfill had completely eliminated environmental hazards associated with the site, ensuring the safety of future users of the park. It was noted that this landfill has been monitored for some time and no environmental issues have been observed, that the site had never been used for disposal of hazardous materials so serious problems were unlikely in the future, and that ongoing monitoring would continue to protect against potential hazards in the future."
Get the rest of the facts here.
Excuse me but the terms "Hazardous Materials" was not even in the lexicon when the "Dump" was in use. Like I posted there is all kinds of lead paint, asbestos and every other dangerous thing the U of I and every other factory and everybody else wanted to get rid of buried out there
I have to agree with Greg,,,,,in 10th grade I worked for an old boy on a side loader garbage truck.....that would have been late 69-1970.....heck I was just the hired help,,,,,,,we dumped old batteries,,,,,,,old window unit air conditioners,,,,paint,,,,,hell I did not know what half the stuff was,,,,,,,I know it buried deep out there,,,,,but I sure would not want to build a nice home over that site,,,,,,,I might be able to read a book at night without turning on a lamp,,,,,,,I would be glowing like on of those Indiglo watches.
I wonder if it would be possible to get the data to study whether there were greater incidences of certain diseases (e.g., cancer) near that site? If so, it'd be very interesting to study that.
I know the radio control airplane club used that site for along time,,,,maybe the park district could put another swimming pool on the site,,,,,,,,start digging down and there is no telling what could come bubbling up. One thing amazing to me, is all the experts in Champaign,,,,,and none of them have a drop of historical perspective about this town. Lack of knowledge is a serious thing:)