COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN SUPERFUND: A CASE STUDY OF THE LOCKFORMER SITE IN LISLE, ILLINOIS
Joann L. Dickinson
As part of the U.S. EPA’s goal to provide early, direct, and meaningful public involvement many Superfund sites have recruited community members to assist in remediation. The most common method of unifying community members for the Superfund involvement, is through an EPA Community Advisory Group. These groups work closely with the EPA to provide input on remediation decisions. This study seeks to learn more about the role that community groups play in Superfund sites, and whether their presence helps or hinders the remediation process. The community surrounding the Lockformer Company Superfund site in Lisle, Illinois has been the focus of the study. The community group at the Lockformer site formed in response to the media attention following the discovery of Trichloroethylene in the soil surrounding the facility. After an initial discovery period to establish the groundwater contamination plume, the community formed a formal, unfunded Community Advisory Group with the EPA.
This research answers three main questions: First, does community involvement in Superfund sites help or hinder remediation? Second, does media attention plan an important role in determining community action in Superfund remediation? Finally, does proximity to the contaminant within an affected community affect community group membership?
Through content analysis and semi-structured interviews, the Lockformer Superfund site is studied and analyzed to determine the groups’ effectiveness. As part of the analysis, the Lockformer site has been compared to the neighboring Ellsworth Industrial site to determine what characteristics make community involvement at the Lockformer site unique.
Overall, factors inside and outside the community groups contributed to delays in remediation. When compared with the Ellsworth site, the privately funded discovery phase led to a longer time to removal of the treat to the public. Negative media attention and lengthy litigation associated with the community group further delayed public water connections, but did not delay on-site remediation.