Ameren's Big Plan in Clinton

OK Folks, this is a long one…but very necessary.

As I continue to observe the differences in small town Clinton life, and the life of my past 26 years of city living, the phrase that is most often presented to me, “Welcome home” has taken on a life of its own. Much like the Scarlet Letter, “welcome home” is gradually meaning “we tend to do dumb thing because nobody seems to care”. Well, this is my home town and I care. Yes, it is true that for the past 26 years I haven’t really cared a whole lot, but now that I am back and want to help Clinton become my home again, I just can’t go on with a blind eye to what I think doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense.

For all of my readers who don’t know about my home town, Clinton, Illinois is a small town of around 7,500 people in central Illinois. It is known for a Lincoln speech about fooling some of the people some of the time, a large lake created by the nuclear power plant, and a town square that has eroded greatly thanks to several influences (that is another blog entry entirely).

So, being a concerned citizen, I have been attending the City Council meetings. Some people feel I am bored and have nothing better to do… although that may be true, knowing what decisions these elected officials are making on my behalf is really my motivation. So, here was a major topic presented during the last meeting: The excavation, transportation, and disposal of “contaminated” soil from the old Illinois Power Building location.

The old Illinois Power Building location at the 200 block of N. Monroe St. has contaminated soil beneath it from an old gas generation facility. It has been lying undisturbed for the past 60 years beneath the building and parking lot. Ameren, and I guess the Illinois EPA, have decided it would be best to remove this soil now that the building has been torn down and transport it through town to the Clinton landfill.

So here is their presentation. After telling the history of the site and spewing out scientific information many people in the room could not understand, they went into the plan for removal. They will erect a large tent covering the entire dig site and create a vacuum inside the tent (with a hopeful negative pressure of .2-.3 for all of you science minded people like me). The tent will have two large garage doors for the trucks to come into the tent and exit the tent. They will load the truck using a backhoe inside the tent, cover the truck with a tarp and transport the contents to Clinton landfill which will house the contaminated soil in the hazardous waste section.

Nan Crang spoke up and asked what route they planned to take through town with the truck to which Ameren responded with a route through residential areas. Nan suggested they use a different route although after finding out that this project which will run trucks about 4 times per hour through town over 6 months thought maybe that this wasn’t such a great idea because the route drives right past a school and it will be back in session. Hey, at least she was thinking of minimizing the risk. This is much better than others who sat there without doing any homework before the meeting. Jerry Milton also spoke up about making sure that the soil was damp and the Ameren response was the tarp will cover it.

So was has my fur up about this whole thing? I have done environmental work before. I know the proper procedure for environmental waste and these people are taking multiple unnecessary risks.

Let’s start with the tent. I realize that Ameren has “done this 15 times before in Illinois” and that is their canned answer, but this is my town dammit. The negative pressure they tout in the presentation to prevent the release of contaminants is totally lost when they open the 2 doors to let a truck in or out of the tent. The tent will be opened 8 times an hour…so how will they gain negative pressure. Think of it like this. If you were on the space shuttle and you wanted to make sure as much air stayed inside the shuttle as possible, would you open a garage door 8 times an hour? Nope. In previous removals I have been associated with, a dumpster would be loaded with sealed bags of contaminates with a bag cleaning process before going to the dumpster outside the contamination area. This means that the contaminants have to be passed through a three zones chamber (dirty, wash, clean) before leaving the tent. Also, the pressure inside the tent would never drop because there would never be a giant truck driven into the tent.

Issue number two: the trucks. Jerry Milton had the right intention but the wrong information. Ameren will only wash the trucks if they show considerable mud or waste. All waste will be captured with the tarp in the truck. Here is my question to the general public, how often have you gone into a dusty area and were able to drive out without having dust on your car? This is what Ameren is not concerned about. How many times have you been driving behind a truck with a tarp on it and has dust blow back or a chunk of dirt fall from the truck in front of you? There is no decontamination process for the trucks. They are free to blow dust all along the exit route of the town and to the dump…which now goes past Lincoln Elementary School and along the houses on Grant street.

Issue number three: the contaminants. What are we talking about here? Why is it this soil has to be sent to the hazardous waste site in the Clinton landfill? Because it contains a few deadly materials. In my past I was responsible for the containment and removal of lead, asbestos, and PCBs. Although the materials I dealt with were deadly in a slow painful way, these are not nearly as bad as Benzine and Cyanide.

Wikipedia (the ultimate source of knowledge) states:Benzine should not be confused with benzene or benzyne, nor should it be confused with gasoline although many languages call that with a name derived from benzine. Benzine is a mixture of alkanes, e.g., pentane, hexane, and heptane, whereas benzene is a cyclic, aromatic hydrocarbon, C6H6. Likewise, petroleum ether should not be confused with the class of organic compounds called ethers, which contain the R-O-R functional group.
During the Second World War some extermination camps experimented by killing people with benzine injections.

Cyanide on the other hand is very well known as a toxin. Wikipedia states:Many cyanides are highly toxic. The cyanide anion is an inhibitor of the enzyme cytochrome c oxidase (also known as aa3) in the fourth complex of the electron transport chain (found in the membrane of the mitochondria of eukaryotic cells). It attaches to the iron within this protein. The binding of cyanide to this cytochrome prevents transport of electrons from cytochrome c oxidase to oxygen. As a result, the electron transport chain is disrupted, meaning that the cell can no longer aerobically produce ATP for energy. Tissues that depend highly on aerobic respiration, such as the central nervous system and the heart, are particularly affected.

The most hazardous compound is hydrogen cyanide, which, because it is a gas at ambient temperatures and pressure, can be inhaled. A respirator must be worn when working with hydrogen cyanide. Hydrogen cyanide is produced when a solution containing a labile cyanide is acidified because HCN is a weak acid; alkaline solutions are safer to use because they do not evolve hydrogen cyanide. Hydrogen cyanide may be produced in the combustion of polyurethanes; for this reason, polyurethanes are not recommended for use in domestic and aircraft furniture. Oral ingestion of a small quantity — typically 200 mg — of solid cyanide or cyanide solution, and airborne exposure of 270 ppm may lead rapidly (within minutes) to death.

Issue number four: disposal. We are taking all of this open soil to the Clinton landfill to dispose of it directly over the Clinton water table. Right… so the hazardous waste section of the Clinton landfill is directly over the water table. The EPA says it is contained and will not cause damage. But when the truck go to dump their load, this creates enough dust that no matter how well it is contained, there will be residual everywhere…remember, they aren’t bagging the soil. They are moving it like any other soil. This is the EPA. The same EPA that stated DDT should be used across the country. The same EPA that until 1970 felt that asbestos was a safe product for everyone.

This brings me to my point (as I almost always have one). Why are we moving it? This soil has been undisturbed for the past 60 years and now Ameren feels they have to spend millions of dollars to dig it up, risk the lives of Clinton adults, children, and pets to transport it and deliver it above the aquifer of the Clinton water supply. This soil has been securely stored under a concrete foundation and parking lot. Why aren’t we just placing a new concrete parking lot on top of it? They are planning to make it a gravel parking lot after all is said and done anyhow. What is the risk compared to transporting it past an elementary school or contaminating the water supply? We all know that the $3.3 million for this project will be passed on to … me. My electric and gas bill. Clintonians electric and gas bills.

This is a community of the elderly and the young. Open your eyes and let your voice be heard.

Update: I saw Jerry Milton in McDonalds this morning and discussed this with him. He too had lots of questions regarding this effort and will be questioning the entire process and the motivation behind it. My impression is that he feels this is not an acceptable risk. Good to know and thanks for listening Jerry.