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EPA to host public meeting on Kerr McGee Kress Creek cleanup in West Chicago, Illinois

Release Date: 04/21/2011
Contact Information: Jayna Legg, 312-353-0562, [email protected]

For Immediate Release No. 11-OPA-35

Chicago (April 21, 2011) --- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold a public meeting Tuesday, April 26, to update the community on the ongoing cleanup of the Kress Creek Superfund site.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the Warrenville City Hall, 28W701 Stafford Place. There will be a short presentation followed by a question-and-answer period. Residents will have the opportunity to meet with EPA representatives and local officials.

There are four Kerr-McGee Superfund sites. The sites were contaminated by radioactive thorium waste material generated by a processing facility, known as the Rare Earths Facility, which operated in West Chicago between 1932 and 1973. The West Chicago Environmental Response Trust is cleaning up the sites and the Rare Earths Facility under a Tronox (formerly Kerr-McGee) bankruptcy settlement.

The Kress Creek/West Branch DuPage River site includes almost seven miles of creek and river sediment, banks and floodplain soils contaminated with radioactive thorium residue.

More information about the Kerr-McGee sites is available at https://www.epa.gov/region5/sites/kerrmcgee/background.htm. For questions or to arrange special accommodations at the meeting, contact Janet Pope, EPA community involvement coordinator, at pope.janet@ epa.gov, or call 800-621-8431, Ext. 30628, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., weekdays.