09/15/11FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASENo. 11-OPA 086…
09/15/11
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
No. 11-OPA 086
(CHICAGO – Sept. 15, 2011) The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency today added the Sandoval Zinc Co.
site in Sandoval, Illinois, to the Superfund National Priorities
List (NPL) of hazardous waste sites. Superfund is the federal
program that investigates and cleans up the most complex,
uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the
country.
The Sandoval Zinc smelting facility closed in
1985 and filed for bankruptcy in 1986. A large waste pile
containing elevated levels of lead, zinc and other metals covers
five acres of the site. Wind-blown contaminants from the plant
settled onto a number of properties in the area, and cinder and
slag material was used in roads and driveways in the community. A
drainage ditch, a pond and wetlands are also contaminated by
material from the site. EPA recently collected soil samples on
nearby residential properties and will be gathering additional data
that is needed to develop a cleanup strategy.
Currently, 1,302 sites are on the Superfund NPL
including 15 new sites added to the list today. Sixty-two
additional sites await final agency action, including the 11 new
proposed sites announced today:
http:/www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm .
For more information on the Sandoval site,
contact the EPA’s community involvement coordinator for the
site, Heriberto Leon, at 800-621-8431, Ext. 66163 from 9 a.m. to
4:30 p.m., weekdays, or via e-mail at [email protected]. More
information is also available online at https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/epa-region-5
.