EPA is off base on coal tar cleanup
By Sauk Valley Newspapers - What We Think - letters@svnmail.com
At first glance, the pending cleanup of decades-old hazardous coal byproducts buried in several acres along the Rock River appears to be a good idea.
After all, who wants to have remnants of coal tar, benzene and arsenic beneath the ground not that far from where Dixon residents live, work and play?
In this case, however, appearances are deceiving.
These chemicals, believed to be between 3 and 20 feet beneath the soil northwest of ComEd’s business office, pose no immediate danger.
Both the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and ComEd officials have said so.
“There is no hazard to the public, and as far as I understand, there’s no release to the river,” said Stanley Black, a community response analyst for the state EPA.
In fact, Black said the only way the chemicals could pose any danger would be if, starting today, someone ingested traces of the contaminated soil every day for decades.
That’s right. You’d apparently have to go there, dig up dirt and eat it, not just once, but daily for the next 20 or 30 years before you’d face a serious health risk.
Who’s dumb enough to do that?
Yet, state EPA regulators insist that this 2-month cleanup take place, and that ComEd pay for it. How? Through an Environmental Cost Recovery Adjustment fee on everyone’s bill, that’s how.
Regulators might say they are erring on the side of caution.
We say they’re erring on the side of stupidity.
The state EPA has bigger fish to fry.
The exasperating thing about government regulators is that when you really need them, they’re out to lunch. Where were the watchdogs while Bernie Madoff defrauded thousands of investors in a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme?
Back in the Sauk Valley, environmental regulators are busy driving up ComEd’s expenses.
For what reason?
To protect people who are stupid enough to eat dirt.
We say, let them eat it.
