hegeler zinc

1 HEGELER LANE

The 100-acre Hegeler Zinc Site is located immediately west of the Village of Hegeler and 3.5 miles south of the City of Danville in Vermilion County, Illinois. The site is in a rural area, bordered by farmland on the west and north. An automobile salvage yard is located about 1,000 feet northeast of the site. Approximately 1,700 people live within 1 mile of the site and the nearest residential area is directly east of the site. Hegeler Zinc began smelting zinc in 1907 under the name of Hegeler Brothers and became known as Hegeler Zinc in 1913. The zinc smelting facility operated from 1906 until approximately 1955. Hegeler Zinc produced various grades of zinc slab and rolled zinc products, and also produced sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid was produced from sulfur gas that was collected from the zinc ore prior to smelting. The smelting operation resulted in large amounts of slag, which was stored in piles on the site. Slag is waste residue produced by the smelting process and contains unburned residues and metals such as lead, arsenic and zinc. In 1942, during World War II, the Defense Plant Corporation, a U.S. government agency, added a cadmium-scavenging process to the zinc smelters to collect cadmium dust, which was then transported off-site to a cadmium smelter. Zinc smelting operations were shut down in November 1947 due to a lack of demand after the war. Zinc rolling and sulfuric acid production continued until 1955. In 1954, Hegeler Zinc dissolved and deeded the operations to National Distillers and Chemical Corporation. The following year, National Distillers sold the zinc rolling mill operations to Peterson Filling and Packaging. The facility was then used to package insecticides, shaving products, and other items. In 1956, Illinois Fireworks Company purchased the remaining National Distillers property for the manufacturing of fireworks. Temporary small wooden huts and inoperable tractor trailers were utilized to store fireworks and positioned throughout the site. Many of these buildings and trailers remain at the site. In 2001, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency collected soil, waste (slag), sediment and groundwater samples from the site and surrounding residential areas and waterways. Slag materials appear to have been used to cover roads in the Village of Hegeler and later as road base for black-top roadways, which have since been repaved with asphalt. In May 2003, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) installed a six-foot-high chain link fence around the site, including signage, to prevent trespassers from coming into contact with the contaminated soil and waste material. EPA proposed the site to the National Priorities List (NPL) in September 2004, and finalized the site on the NPL in April 2005, making it eligible for cleanup under EPA’s Superfund program. Complex cleanup sites are often divided into smaller, more manageable sections called Operable Units or OUs. EPA has divided the Hegeler Zinc Site into three OUs: • OU #1: Former Hegeler Zinc property, including areas of soil, surface water, sediment, and groundwater contamination. • OU #2: Affected areas of surface water and sediment outside the EPA-constructed fence. • OU #3: Residential area located in the Hegeler neighborhood east of the former Hegeler Zinc property, from West Hegeler Lane east to and including Third Street. EPA has identified several potentially responsible parties (PRPs) for the Hegeler Zinc Superfund Site. PRPs are entities that may bear legal and financial responsibilities for a Superfund cleanup. EPA negotiated two separate administrative orders with the PRPs at the site, one order for OU2 and another order for OU1 and OU3, but as discussed below, only the order for OU2 was finalized.

Hazardous Ranking Score

50 / 100

A score of 28.5 or higher qualifies a site for the Superfund National Priority List.

Regional Contact

Region 5
Phone: (312) 353-2000

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Timeline

Discovery
Site Inspection
Preliminary Assessment
Final Listing On NPL
Removal

Contaminants & Health Effects

      Carcinogen
      Endocrine Disrupter
      Neurotoxic
      Sensitiser
      Reproductive Toxin
      Persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic
      VOC
      Mutagen

        Census

        White
        African American
        Asian
        American Indian and Alaska Native
        Native Hawaiian
        Other

        1,289

        People living
        within a 1 mile radius

        $45,387

        Average Income

        505

        Occupied homes

        Potentially Responsible Parties

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