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Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Environment - More on Chicago's successful plan to import downstate mud
In April the Indiana Law Blog posted this entry titled "Inspired solution helps both Chicago and East Peoria," based on a NY Times story. Today the Munster Times has its own report, headlined "Pay dirt on a slag field: River sediment to transform Chicago's former U.S. Steel site into park." Some quotes:
[Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn] unveiled a project on the city's Southeast Side Monday afternoon that takes mud dredged from the bottom of the Illinois River near Peoria and spreads it over the former U.S. Steel South Works site. The Chicago Park District wants to build a 17-acre park on the slag field, but needs to cover the property with fertile soil to make the project a reality. * * *The project, dubbed "Mud-to-Parks," calls for 105,000 tons of sediment to be dredged from the Illinois River near Peoria, loaded onto 70 barges and shipped 163 miles up the Illinois River to the former U.S. Steel South Works site at 87th Street and Lake Michigan. Once the sediment arrives in Chicago, it is unloaded from the barges and spread on the 17-acre slag heap to a depth of 2 to 3 feet.
Native grasses will be planted once the sediment placement is complete, with the property eventually becoming a lakefront park. The dredging of the Illinois River started in Peoria on April 6. The first barges arrived in Chicago three weeks ago.
The project was the brainchild of John Marlin, an Illinois Department of Natural Resources scientist. Marlin ran a pilot project in 2000 in which sediment dredged from the Illinois River near Peoria was shipped on barges to Chicago and spread on a landfill. Grasses are now growing at that site. Marlin approached Quinn in February 2003 with his idea and a partnership began. "It gives everyone with a brownfield or new industrial site a new option," Marlin said. * * *
Moving the sediment to Chicago by barge, officials said, is the environmentally friendly transportation choice over trucks because, in part, of reduced air pollution and wear and tear on highways. It also saved the Chicago Park District and Chicago taxpayers millions of dollars that would have been used to purchase top soil for the park project, according to Chicago Park District Superintendent Timothy Mitchell.
The soil being dredged and moved to Chicago is mildly contaminated with heavy metals, Marlin said, unlike sediments dredged from waterways in the Chicago area and Northwest Indiana, which contain high levels of toxins. According to Marlin, heavy contaminants settle upstream in narrow waterways and what remains continues downstream toward Peoria, becoming diluted as the river widens. The dredging is expected to be complete in about a month, with the removal of the sediment from the barges ending about two weeks after that, Marlin said.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 18, 2004 08:16 AM
Posted to Environmental Issues