outboard marine corp.

200 SEA HORSE DR

The Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC) Superfund site is located on Lake Michigan on and around the northern Waukegan Harbor area in Waukegan, Lake County, Illinois. The site contains four cleanup parcels, called "operable units" (OUs). The Waukegan Harbor (WH) site is OU 1, the Waukegan Manufactured Gas and Coke Plant (WCP) site is OU 2, the PCB Containment Cells, which were created when the harbor was first cleaned up in 1990-1993, comprise OU 3, and the OMC Plant 2 site is OU 4. Waukegan Harbor is a federally-authorized and federally-maintained harbor that was constructed in the late 1800s to serve the Lake County area. The harbor is a designated port of refuge for boats caught in severe storms. Land use in the immediate area is marine-recreational and industrial. Several industries still use the harbor to deliver raw material (gypsum, cement) from Michigan to make wallboard and concrete in manufacturing facilities located directly on the harbor. Pleasure boaters are served by a private marina located at the north end of the harbor and the Waukegan Port District also maintains a small craft mooring area in the harbor's central area. The city of Waukegan maintains a public beach on Lake Michigan southeast of the WCP site and adjacent to the harbor's entrance channel. From about 1948 to December 2000, OMC manufactured outboard motors in its OMC Plant 2 facility located to the north of (but not on) Waukegan Harbor. In the 1960s and 1970s, OMC had purchased an estimated 8 million gallons of hydraulic fluid containing polychlorinated bipenyls (PCBs) for use in its various types of machinery making engine parts. The fluids containing PCBs were sometimes discharged through floor drains leading into sewers that discharged onto the OMC Plant 2 grounds and into Waukegan Harbor. As a result, an estimated 700,000 pounds of PCBs were estimated to be present in the soil on the OMC Plant 2 site and another 300,000 pounds of PCBs were estimated to be in the sediment in Waukegan Harbor. Under EPA's oversight, OMC cleaned up PCB-contaminated northern harbor sediment and some PCB-contaminated OMC Plant 2 site soils in 1990-1993. OMC operated several vapor degreasers at the OMC Plant 2 facility to clean newly made boat engine parts with trichloroethylene (TCE). Leaking degreasers and/or TCE storage tanks created a widespread TCE groundwater contaminant plume and an isolated dense, non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) pool of pure TCE beneath the OMC Plant 2 site. After declaring bankruptcy in December 2000, OMC legally abandoned its Plant 2 facility in December 2002. In the early 1900s, a wood-treating plant operated on the WCP site, followed by a manufactured gas plant in the 1920s and a coke oven gas plant in the 1940s. The WCP site was purchased and the coke plant was disassembled by OMC in approximately 1972. Contamination at the WCP site was discovered during OMC's harbor cleanup in the early 1990s. The WCP site has arsenic and polyaromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) soil contamination and the groundwater is contaminated with high levels of ammonia, arsenic, benzene, and phenol. After OMC declared bankruptcy, the city of Waukegan purchased the WCP site and then the OMC Plant 2 site from the bankruptcy estate as part of its plan to revitalize its lakefront. Waukegan plans to build townhomes and condominiums on the WCP and OMC Plant 2 sites - once any necessary environmental cleanup actions are completed. Site Responsibility The OMC site is being addressed through a combination of federal, state, and potentially responsible party (PRP) actions.

Hazardous Ranking Score

0 / 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

        7,908

        People living
        within a 1 mile radius

        $52,197

        Average Income

        2,674

        Occupied homes

        Potentially Responsible Parties

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