Deal to clean up Chicago-area radioactive waste

[theHandpuppet]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-radioactive-cleanup-settlement-met-20140405,0,539294.story

The Chicago Tribune
Deal to clean up Chicago-area radioactive waste
The nation's biggest settlement for environmental contamination sets aside $121 million for Chicago and $9 million for West Chicago
By Michael Hawthorne, Tribune reporters
April 5, 2014

Every time developers dig up a patch of Chicago's Streeterville neighborhood to build hotels or high-rise condominiums, the soil must be tested for radioactive thorium dumped years ago at several sites near the Chicago River.

Tons of contaminated soil have been removed in recent years as the neighborhood undergoes a rapid transformation from its industrial past. Now the city and the federal government have a new source of funding to ensure taxpayers aren't stuck with the bill.

A $5.15 billion legal settlement announced this week by the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency includes about $121 million for thorium removal work in Streeterville and $9 million to help finish the cleanup of contaminated sites in suburban West Chicago.

The radioactive waste was dumped decades ago by the Lindsey Light and Chemical Co., which used thorium to produce gas lantern mantels at a long-forgotten Chicago factory. The company moved to West Chicago in the 1930s, changed hands several times and ended up as part of Kerr-McGee Corp., which was cited last year by a federal bankruptcy judge for fraudulently shifting its massive environmental liabilities to a separate company.... MORE

[GTurck]

1. Interesting....

Streeterville was the northern edge of the "Black Belt" of Chicago and one of the prime areas for brothels and gambling. Quite a reputation and now it is being gentrified.