Transforming a notorious site into a park: What West Chicago plans to do with Kerr-McGee land
More than 50 years after the Kerr-McGee factory shut down in West Chicago, city officials have created a master plan to transform the notorious site into a recreational area.
The city envisions the old factory grounds - where fencing and earth-moving equipment now stand - eventually becoming a community park.
The first phase of the park project is expected to begin in one to two years and aims to return part of the property to a more natural state by planting native vegetation. Other improvements might be years away from becoming a reality.
Shallow groundwater beneath the factory site contains residual contaminants - in particular, uranium. The remaining groundwater contamination will be addressed using portions of the $36 million in federal funds left in the West Chicago Environmental Response Trust.
Officials say remedying that issue marks the final stage of a massive effort to clean up areas of West Chicago that were tainted with radioactive waste from the former Rare Earths Facility. Since the cleanup operation began decades ago, vast quantities of contaminated materials have been removed from waterways, hundreds of residential properties, Reed-Keppler Park and a sewage treatment plant.
The city will take control of all 40-plus acres of factory land once the remediation work has been completed.
Ahead of that historical turning point, West Chicago leaders have outlined how the park will take shape. Some proposed ideas would bring pickleball and tennis courts, picnic shelters and public art, a challenge course and a sledding hill to the property along Weyrauch Street.
"This particular site has drawn a lot of negative attention over the years," City Administrator Michael Guttman said. "This will be a bright spot for the residents, especially in those adjacent neighborhoods, as well as our entire community to come and enjoy and celebrate the end of this unfortunate portion of West Chicago's history."
Factory history
Lindsay Light and Chemical Co. and its successors operated the facility from 1932 until 1973. The factory produced radioactive elements such as thorium, radium and uranium, along with gas lantern mantles, for private entities and federal atomic energy programs.
Radioactive mill tailings, a sandlike byproduct, were stored in large piles at the plant.
"Over several decades, before the health risks associated with radioactive materials were generally recognized, the mill tailings were available for use as free fill material by residents and contractors," the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a 2003 report.
Kerr-McGee, which took over the factory in 1967, later sought to bury waste on-site.
After years of legal and political haggling, Kerr-McGee agreed to remove and ship the waste by rail to a permanent disposal facility in Utah's west desert.
The last train car carrying thorium-contaminated soil rolled out of the city in November 2015.
The Illinois Emergency Management Agency is supervising the final remediation project at the factory site.
Officials have said that residual constituents such as uranium continue to leach from some of the remediated soil into the shallow groundwater.
Still, officials have stressed that the contaminated groundwater does not pose an exposure threat to human health and the environment because it is confined to a small geographical area, and the residential population does not use it.
"There will be a building on site to process groundwater, and that's a temporary building," West Chicago Community Development Director Tom Dabareiner said.
Once that work is done, "the property should be turned over to the city, and the city will be in a position to accept it," Dabareiner said.
'A big positive'
West Chicago leaders have worked with Upland Design, a landscape architecture firm, on a park blueprint based on resident surveys and forums. The entire park plan, including a list of amenities ranging from asphalt trails to a community pavilion, could cost an estimated $15 million in current-year dollars. The city intends to develop the park in phases as funding becomes available.
Under a change to city council budget policy, if the city's general fund ending balance at the end of any given fiscal year exceeds 35% of operating expenses, excess reserves will shift to the park fund.
"The last several years, we've had great economic development in our town, so we received higher than expected permit revenue," Guttman said.
The city council formally adopted the master park plan in September. It also calls for a connection to Pioneer Park.
"It's an area that could still benefit from more park space," Dabareiner said. "And it really does turn what was once a negative into a big positive for the community."
A history of contamination
1932: Lindsay Light and Chemical Co. in West Chicago starts making gas lamps, producing radioactive thorium in the process.
1967: Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. buys Lindsay Light, continues operation.
1973: Plant is closed.
1984-85: Kerr-McGee, in cooperation with the city of West Chicago, conducts a voluntary cleanup of about 117 properties.
April 1989: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recommends permanently burying radioactive waste at the Kerr-McGee plant.
January 1990: The resident-led Thorium Action Group pushes for shipping the waste out of state.
March 1991: A state appellate court rules Kerr-McGee needs the Environmental Protection Agency's permission to bury 587,000 tons of the waste on-site. The EPA was against the move. The company eventually agrees to send the waste by train to a dumping ground near Clive, Utah.
Summer 2005: The EPA begins work on a cleanup of Kress Creek and the West Branch of the DuPage River.
2009: Tronox, a spinoff of Kerr-McGee, files for bankruptcy.
2010: Department of Justice announces that 22 states, the Navajo Nation and local governments in Chicago and West Chicago have entered into a consent decree and settlement agreement with Tronox Inc. to fund the cleanup of contaminated sites.
2011: The West Chicago Environmental Response Trust agreement is signed.
2015: The last rail car full of thorium waste rolls out.
2016: Trust receives roughly $17.6 million in federal funds. Lawmakers from Illinois had called for funding to be restored to the Department of Energy's Title X program, which reimburses communities for the cleanup of sites used to produce thorium and uranium for the federal government.
To the present: Investigation work continued through 2022, leading to a recommendation to remediate the groundwater.
Source: Daily Herald archives, environmental analysis prepared for IEMA