U.S. EPA working toward agreement for Tremont Barrel Fill cleanup plan

The U.S. EPA hopes to bring the key parties together in 2019 to get agreement on a cleanup plan for the Tremont City Barrel Fill, a plan that includes burying hazardous solids atop a "waste cell" and monitoring the groundwater forever.

>> Background on Tremont City Barrel Fill

But for now, the U.S. Justice Department is conducting a legal review of the documents that outline the plan, Jim Saric, remedial project manager, EPA in Chicago, told people who attended a public forum Tuesday night at the Springfield City Forum downtown.

The session was intended to provide the community an update about the controversial hazardous waste dump site in Clark County.

Saric described the plan this way: The drums would be removed and the liquid waste from them would be shipped off site. The solids that remain would be removed from the landfill so a "double-lined waste cell" could be installed. The hazardous solids then would be put back into the landfill, inside the cell. The cell would be capped.

The EPA then would monitor the groundwater forever, Saric said.

He estimated the project cost at $27 million to $28 million.

Saric said it's difficult to say when the project would begin. He's hopeful the key parties that are central to the plan can get together sometime in 2019.

Once agreement is reached, project design could take a year, which he said is pretty typical.

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