Region 5 Superfund (SF)

U.S. EPA REGION 5
LAKE COUNTY
WAUKEGAN

Congressional District # 10

OUTBOARD MARINE CORP.

EPA ID# ILD000802827
Last Updated: December, 2007

Site Description

The Outboard Marine Corporation, Inc. (OMC) site is located in the northern Waukegan Harbor area in Waukegan, Illinois.  The site contains four cleanup parcels, called "operable units" (OUs). The Waukegan Harbor (WH) site is OU #1. The Waukegan Manufactured Gas and Coke Plant (WCP) site is OU #2.  The PCB containment cells created when the harbor was cleaned up in 1992 is OU #3, and the OMC Plant 2 site is OU #4.

Land use in the immediate area of the OMC site is marine recreational and industrial and there is a public beach on Lake Michigan on the east side of the WCP site.  OMC declared bankruptcy in December 2000 and began liquidation proceedings in August 2001.  The city of Waukegan purchased the WCP site and then the OMC Plant 2 property from the bankruptcy estate as part of its plan to revitalize its lakefront.  It hopes to build townhomes and condominiums where the coke plant and OMC Plant 2 once stood.

From approximately 1948 to 1971, OMC purchased an estimated 8 million gallons of hydraulic fluid that contained PCBs and used it in its OMC Plant 2 building in the die casting process for making outboard motors.  PCBs were discharged through floor drains into a tributary of Lake Michigan and were ultimately discharged to Waukegan Harbor.  As a result, 700,000 pounds of PCBs were estimated to be present in the soil on the OMC Plant 2 property and 300,000 pounds of PCBs were in the soils and sediments of Waukegan Harbor.

In the early 1900s, a wood-treating plant operated on the WCP site, followed by a manufactured gas plant in the 1920s and a coke oven gas plant in the 1940s. The plant was purchased and disassembled by OMC in approximately 1972.

Site Responsibility

This site is being addressed through federal, state, and potentially responsible party (PRP) actions.

Threats and Contaminants

Portions of Waukegan Harbor are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), although at lower levels than in previous years due to the cleanup action that OMC completed in the early 1990s (see next section).  Today, harbor sediment PCB levels average less than 5 mg/kg ("parts per million" or ppm).  However, current data suggest the PCBs in the sediment could still be affecting benthic organisms as well as fish living in the harbor.  Humans could be exposed to PCBs by consuming fish caught in the harbor that have accumulated PCBs in their fatty tissues.  The State of Illinois monitors PCB levels in harbor fish on a yearly basis and a fish consumption advisory is in effect.

Soil at the WCP site is contaminated with coal tar, arsenic, and creosote and groundwater is contaminated in some areas with ammonia, arsenic, phenol, and benzene.  Humans could be exposed to the soil contaminants by accidental contact or ingestion and to the groundwater contaminants by ingestion. The WCP site is fenced to prevent casual contact with soil contaminants, and no one will be allowed to use the groundwater as a source of potable water.

OMC Plant 2 was abandoned by the OMC bankruptcy trustee in December 2002.  Site soil is contaminated with PCBs above 1 ppm.  Groundwater and soil beneath the plant building is contaminated with various chlorinated volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including trichloroethene (TCE) and vinyl chloride. Humans could be exposed to the soil contaminants by accidental contact or ingestion and to the groundwater contaminants by ingestion. The OMC Plant 2 site is fenced to prevent casual contact with soil contaminants, and no one will be allowed to use the groundwater as a source of potable water.

The PCB containment cells were constructed by OMC in 1992 when it cleaned up Waukegan Harbor.  The cells contain PCBs at levels above 50 ppm to as high as 5000 ppm.  They are covered with a low permeability soil layer and are inspected and maintained by the city of Waukegan.  If the covers were to fail, humans could be exposed to PCBs in the stored soil by direct contact or ingestion.

Cleanup Progress

Waukegan Harbor: U.S. EPA and OMC entered into a consent decree requiring OMC to clean up Waukegan Harbor and portions of its OMC Plant 2 property in 1989.  OMC began work in 1990, dredging the north harbor extension to achieve a cleanup level of 50 ppm PCBs.   Some of the sediment was thermally treated onsite to distill off the PCB oils so that the oil could be sent off site for destruction.  The rest of the sediment and excavated soils were placed into three containment cells - one was constructed in former Boat Slip #3 and two were placed on the north side of the Plant 2 property.  OMC installed groundwater extraction wells within the containment cells so that an inward groundwater gradient would be established in case of cell failure.  All construction was completed by 1994 and OMC operated and maintained the containment cells until shortly after it declared bankruptcy in 2000.  U.S. EPA, and then Illinois EPA, took over the maintenance work on the containment cells after OMC ceased performing this work.  Presently the city of Waukegan is performing the maintenance work on the containment cells in accordance with an agreement with U.S. EPA and the state.

Future cleanup actions for Waukegan Harbor are being evaluated by U.S. EPA, Illinois EPA, and area stakeholders.

Waukegan Coke Plant: OMC excavated current Boat Slip #4 in Waukegan Harbor because former Boat Slip #3 was converted into a containment cell.  In the course of excavating the new boat slip, creosote-contaminated soils were discovered.  This lead to the discovery of the Waukegan Coke Plant (WCP) site directly to the south.  Later, U.S. EPA and the North Shore Gas Company, a former site owner, entered into an administrative order on consent for the completion of a remedial investigation and feasibility study (RI/FS) at the WCP site.  The RI was completed in February 1995 and a final FS was released in November 1998.

U.S. EPA issued a Record of Decision on September 30, 1999, for the cleanup of the WCP site.  We determined that soil contaminants should be cleaned up to commercial/industrial re-use levels (because OMC was still operating at the time) and groundwater to drinkable status.  Accordingly, soil would be excavated and disposed of or treated to remove arsenic and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) or coal tars.  Groundwater would be pumped and treated to remove high levels of ammonia, benzene, arsenic, and phenol and then subject to natural attenuation.

The WCP site soil cleanup action began in November 2004 and was completed in November 2005.  Thousands of tons of arsenic- and PAH-contaminated soil were trucked off site for disposal in area landfills.  Some of the more tarry material was trucked to Utah and Pennsylvania for disposal in co-burning facilities used to generate electricity.  After all excavations were completed and testing was done to show that cleanup levels had been reached, backfill material was placed into the excavations and a 6- to 10-inch top soil layer was placed over the site.

The groundwater cleanup action design plans were completed in 2006 and construction of the water treatment system began in April 2007.  Pump and treatment of contaminated groundwater will begin in about Summer 2008 and last through 2011 to 2016, depending on how efficiently run the cleanup action is.

OMC Plant 2: Before the OMC Plant 2 site was abandoned by the OMC bankruptcy trustee in 2002, U.S. EPA and Illinois EPA reached an agreement with the trustee whereby the trustee would perform some cleanup actions inside the plant.  These actions included the removal of certain waste chemicals and the cleanup of some machinery.  Afterwards U.S. EPA performed additional interior cleanup work to prevent the release of PCBs and other compounds into the environment.  We completed this work in Spring 2003.

U.S. EPA began an RI/FS at the site in 2004 to determine the nature and extent of residual contaminants and to evaluate cleanup approaches.  We released a cleanup proposal in January 2007 for public comment.  Meanwhile, the city of Waukegan began to demolish the clean portions of the OMC Plant 2 building in Summer 2006.  It completed the bulk of this work in November 2006.  U.S. EPA issued a Record of Decision for cleanup work for certain portions (contaminated building and soils) of the site in September 2007.  U.S. EPA also began the remedial design phase of the selected cleanup action in September 2007 with the goal of beginning cleanup work in April 2008.

A second Record of Decision is planned for release in September 2008 to cover the remaining portions (contaminated groundwater and source areas) of the site.

Community Involvement

The Waukegan Community Advisory Group (CAG) has been tracking cleanup progress in Waukegan Harbor for many years.  This group of concerned citizens and area business and municipal representatives meets once a month to discuss local environmental issues and to lend support to the harbor cleanup efforts.

Property Reuse

The city of Waukegan has targeted the OMC site for redevelopment as soon as cleanup actions are completed.  The city hopes to build a mixed-use development on the properties, including condominiums, shops, and marine-based service businesses.

Contacts

Remedial Project Manager, U.S. EPA
kevin adler (adler.kevin@epa.gov)
(312) 886-7078

Community Involvement Coordinator, U.S. EPA
mike joyce
(312) 353-5546

Aliases

OUTBOARD MARINE CORPORATION
WAUKEGAN MANUFACTURING GAS & COKE PLANT
OMC
OMC-JOHNSON
OUTBOARD MARINE CORP JOHNSON

 

Site Profile Information

This profile provides you with information on EPA's cleanup progress at this Superfund site.