Headlines
Session Seeks to Calm Fears
05/27/2006
By JOCELYN ALLISON
McCULLOM LAKE – Local and state environmental officials plan to present data to village residents next week that contradicts what they have heard from a Pennsylvania attorney about why their neighbors have developed brain cancer.
The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the McHenry County Department of Health will give a presentation on the effects of groundwater contamination at manufacturing facilities in Ringwood during two public sessions at 6:30 and 8 p.m. Wednesday at Village Hall, 4811 Orchard Drive, McCullom Lake.
The meetings are an attempt to provide residents with information about the direction of a toxic plume of chemicals that a federal lawsuit alleges traveled from Ringwood to McCullom Lake, causing cancer in several residents there.
IEPA officials said Friday that records on Rohm and Haas’ cleanup efforts since 1991 showed that the groundwater contamination had not reached private wells in McCullom Lake, but rather had traveled southeast.
"The fact of the matter is the evidence we have, and there’s a great deal of it, and it points away from the plants being a causal factor," said IEPA community relations coordinator Stan Black, who will be presenting the information at the Wednesday meeting.
Other companies named in the lawsuit in addition to Rohm and Haas are Morton International, Huntsman, Huntsman Polyurethanes, and Modine Manufacturing.
Local health officials plan to outline data presented earlier this week to the McHenry County Board of Health on the results of well tests the county conducted since the lawsuit was filed in April, community information coordinator Debra Quackenbush said.
Village President Jeanne Hansen said she hoped that the presentation would calm the fears of residents, whom she believes have not been provided with all the facts.
"These are allegations," she said. "They are not facts. So the purpose of this is to give the facts that are supported by documentation."
Informational session
What: Officials from the IEPA and the McHenry County Department of Health will have an informational session for the residents of McCullom Lake on alleged groundwater contamination in Ringwood.
When: The first session will begin at 6:30 p.m.; a second will begin at 8 p.m. to accommodate overflow.
Where: McCullom Lake Village Hall, 4811 Orchard Drive, McCullom Lake.