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Downtown Redevelopment

Environmental

As has been stated by concerned residents and the Mayor and Board at meetings over the life of this project, the Village has been made aware of several rumored areas of contamination, as well as areas in which contamination has been confirmed and reported to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA), who is pursuing action against the owner/operators of underground petroleum storage tanks, based upon these owner's admissions that a Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) incident has occurred. As is generally the case, these LUST incidents occurred at gasoline filling stations, former and current. Most of the former gasoline filling stations in Illinois had some degree of leaking from their underground tanks as inferior materials and procedures failed over the years. In the case of the Downtown project, the Village was aware that LUST incidents had been reported at the former Clark (now Marathon) gas station and the former State Oil gas station, located immediately south of Indian Creek on the east side of Milwaukee Avenue. Prior to acquisition of the former State Oil property, the Village conducted environmental testing, above and beyond that required by the IEPA, so that there would be a clear picture of any contaminants present on the property and the extent of contamination. The contamination is entirely contained on-site and has not migrated to Indian Creek.

Current Status
The Village is currently negotiating with the former State Oil property owner to ensure clean-up by the disposal of all contaminated soil on-site. The property owner has agreed in principle, and there area a few details remaining to be resolved, prior to a final agreement. As for the contamination related to the former Clark (now Marathon) gas station, the new Lessee has agreed to remediate the contamination and has contracted with an environmental engineer to create a plan, that will be acceptable to both IEPA and the Village, for cleanup beginning in 2004.