Citing potential public health hazards associated with lead poisoning, the state of Illinois’ Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Kane County Special State’s Attorney M. Katherine Moran have filed suit to order the owners of a parcel of land in Kane County to build a fence around an area allegedly contaminated with dangerous levels of lead.
From 1968 to 1978, defendant Ray L. McNew, Sr. of Genoa, operated a scrap and battery recycling business where lead acid batteries were broken apart to retrieve their lead. Glenn Kedzie of Algonquin, who has owned part of the land since 2002, also is named as a defendant in the complaint filed in Kane County Circuit Court.
The complaint alleges that results of soil samples taken from the battery casing area revealed 110,000 parts per million total lead concentration, while samples from the underground fire site showed a 2,400 ppm total lead concentration.
Heightened levels of lead were revealed in soil samples taken by the IEPA following an underground fire at the site last October.
According to the complaint, high levels of lead are known to possibly cause damage to the nervous system and other vital organs in humans.
At this time, access to the site, bordered on the south by a residential neighborhood in the Village of Gilberts, is unrestricted and poses a potential public health threat. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has observed vehicle tracks in the allegedly contaminated area.
Madigan and Moran’s suit seeks an immediate injunction to prohibit public access to the area and to require the defendants to erect a fence to secure the premises within five weeks of the injunction.
Additionally, the suit seeks an order requiring the defendants to post signs warning of the contamination and forbidding unauthorized access within 48 hours of the court’s order.
The suit also seeks the statutory maximum civil penalty of $50,000 per violation and $10,000 per day for open dumping and water pollution caused by years of allegedly dumping old batteries at the site, allowing them to leak and spill battery acid.
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