ILD984809228, Superfund Alternative Approach Agreements Sites | Region 5 Superfund

U.S. EPA REGION 5
LAKE COUNTY
WAUKEGAN

Congressional District # 04

NORTH SHORE GAS SOUTH PLANT

EPA ID# ILD984809228
Last Updated: November, 2008

Site Description

The South Plant Former Manufactured Gas Plant MGP site is located at 2 North Pershing Road and 1 South Pershing Road in Section 22, Township 45 North, Range 12 East in the City of Waukegan, Lake County, Illinois. The site (approximately 1.9 acres) is bounded to the north by the City of Waukegan Metra Train Station parking lot, to the west by the Union Pacific Railroad yard and to the south and east by the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern (“EJ&E”) Railway line. Immediately east of the EJ&E Railway line are properties owned by the Waukegan Port District and Akzo Nobel. The site, which is owned by North Shore Gas (except for Pershing Road, which traverses the middle of the site and which is owned and maintained by the City of Waukegan), is located in an industrial/commercial area and is currently vacant, with sparse vegetation and remnants of former buildings covering the surface.

MGPs were industrial facilities that produced gas from coal, oil, and other feedstocks. MGPs started operating in the U.S. in the early 1800s, typically in urban areas where gas was needed for lighting, cooking, and heating. The processes used to produce the gas also produced waste and by-products such as tars, purifier waste, oils, sludges, and acidic waste. Disposal of waste and spills and leaks often resulted in contaminated soil and groundwater. MGPs were often located near waterbodies and sediment contamination is also common.

The facility was constructed in 1897 by the Waukegan Pipeline Service Company and purchased by North Shore Gas in 1900. The plant was operational from 1898 to 1946 except for a stoppage from 1927 to 1935, and was razed in 1951. On-site features included a coal gas condensing building, a purifying building, a generator building and a laboratory. Four tar wells and five storage tanks, three for gas and two for oil, were also located on-site.

Site Responsibility

The site is being addressed through federal and potentially responsible parties actions.

Threats and Contaminants

Soil, groundwater and sediment at former MGPs are often contaminated. Public water in the area is obtained from Lake Michigan (the water intakes for the City of Waukegan are approximately 5,000 feet southeast of the site) and no private potable wells are located within the vicinity of the site. Groundwater samples collected at the site from 2001 to 2003 and on adjacent properties from 2003 to 2005 contained volatile organic compounds (VOCs), consisting mostly of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX), semi-VOCs [primarily polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)], cyanide, and metals. Visible hydrocarbons were observed at or below the water table both on-site and on the adjacent Waukegan Port District and Akzo Nobel properties to the east. Free-phase tar has been measured at thicknesses up to 1.5 feet in wells on the site and at thicknesses of more than 5 feet in wells 560 feet downgradient of the site on the Waukegan Port District property and within 160 feet of Waukegan Harbor. Tar is being recovered from monitoring and recovery wells located on-site and on the Port District property.

Numerous on-site borings have encountered visible soil impacts from former site operations. Strong odors, a visible sheen, and soils saturated or coated with tar or dense non-aqeuous phase liquids (DNAPL) have been observed both on-site and on the adjacent Waukegan Port District and Akzo Nobel properties to the east. BTEX, SVOCs, cyanide, and metals have been detected in soils on the site and the adjacent properties.

Information regarding current sediment characteristics is limited. Sediments were dredged from Waukegan Harbor in the early 1990s to address polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination associated with the Outboard Marine Corporation Superfund (OMC) site. Sediments in the harbor were sampled in 2005 to determine current levels of PCBs; some samples were also analyzed for asbestos and total organic carbon (TOC). Boring logs indicate that some of the sediments contained organics. A sediment toxicity study performed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) determined that although the levels of PCBs have been reduced, the harbor sediments still exhibit toxicity associated with elevated concentrations of metals, PCBs, and PAHs.

Cleanup Progress

The Agency was approached by Wisconsin Public Service Corp. (WPSC) in 2005, to investigate and clean up seven former MGPs throughout Wisconsin under EPA’s Superfund Alternative Sites (SAS) program. The SAS Program takes sites that might otherwise be eligible for the National Priorities List (NPL), but which will be investigated and cleaned up by a cooperative responsible party, without formally listing the site on the NPL. When WPSC merged with Peoples Energy to form Integrys Energy Group, EPA was approached by Peoples Energy in 2007, to address thirteen former MGPs in Illinois under the same SAS program. The South Plant Station is one of those thirteen sites.

The Agency and Integrys entered into an Administrative Order on Consent (AOC) for Remedial Investigations and Feasibility Studies at the two Waukegan sites and an AOC for Engineering Evaluations and Cost Analyses (EE/CAs) at the eleven Chicago sites. Because the twenty sites have similar conditions and contaminants, and Integrys is responsible for each, the agreements allow a streamlined approach to site investigation and remedy development. Some benefits of the agreement include the use of multi-site documents, a mechanism to review the adequacy of past work, and scheduling flexibility to allow progress on the worst problems first. By the end of 2008, all of the mult-site documents had been approved, and site-specific work had begun on several of the sites. On October 31, 2008 EPA and Integrys entered into an AOC which converted the EE/CA AOC for the 11 Chicago former MGP sites to an RI/FS AOC.

Investigations and Remediation Previously Performed

Numerous site investigation reports have been produced for the site and/or for the surrounding properties dating from 1991 through 2005. These investigations included a CERCLA Screening Site Inspection (SSI) performed by the Illinois EPA (IEPA). Limited soil remediation was conducted at the site in December 2003 through February 2004 which included the excavation and off-site disposal of impacted soils located above the water table. Approximately 19,250 tons of impacted soils were removed from the site and backfill was imported to replace the excavated soil. A plastic liner was placed at the water table elevation to protect the imported backfill from potential contamination. This remediation effort did not address impacted soils located beneath the water table and did not include excavation of all impacted soils identified above the water table, but rather focused on those soils exhibiting the greatest degree of impacts. No soil remediation activities have been conducted at the adjacent Port District and Akzo Nobel properties. Recovery of free-phase tar is currently being conducted at the site and on the Port District property. Additional investigation of the remaining contamination will take place under the RI/FS. The RI/FS work plan preparation began in February 2008 and is expected to be complete by February 2010.

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