Public Notice: EPA Begins Five-Year Review of North Shore Gas South Plant Superfund Site
Summary
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with consultation from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, or Illinois EPA, is conducting its first five-year review of the North Shore Gas South Plant Superfund Site in Waukegan, Illinois. The Superfund law requires regular checkups of sites that have been cleaned up – with waste managed on-site – to make sure the cleanup continues to protect people and the environment. A summary of the cleanup activities and an evaluation of the protectiveness of the implemented cleanup remedies will be included in the five-year review report.
Cleanup started in July 2015 when EPA issued an Interim Record of Decision which formally announced the remedy chosen to address an area of undissolved tar-like liquids or dense non-aqueous phase liquid, or DNAPL, in the groundwater beneath the North Shore Gas South Plant Superfund site.
In March 2019, EPA issued a remedial design for an extraction system to be used in the interim groundwater DNAPL cleanup. Construction of the interim groundwater DNAPL cleanup system began in November 2019 and became operational in December 2023.
The five-year review at the North Shore Gas South Plant Superfund site gives the public an opportunity to comment about site conditions or concerns.
This is the first five-year review of the North Shore Gas South Plant Superfund site. Its completion is expected by November 2024.