Cleanup and monitoring will continue for at least two weeks following the July 19 fire at the Tri-County Stockdale fertilizer plant.
The city of Joliet announced Tuesday that a section of Black Road running past the plant will remain closed for at least two weeks due to mitigation efforts.
The Tri-County Stockdale is in Shorewood, where the village put out an update on cleanup efforts on Monday.
But Black Road runs through both Joliet and Shorewood, and the closed section is between River and County Line roads.
The plant was destroyed by the fire.
The Shorewood update came in the form of a community letter from Village Administrator Aaron Klima posted on the village website.
“We are pleased to report that our containment operations were successful,” Klima said.
He said “pumping operations have removed over 640,000 gallons of contaminated fluid from within the village alone. The large volume of rain over the weekend further diluted the water in our storm sewer system and detention ponds.
“Because of the danger of flooding residential homes along the detention ponds, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency authorized a gradual release of the diluted detention ponds in order to prevent private property damage along the ponds,” Klima said.
Klima said the village has received “repeated requests for additional information,” especially detailed test results.
“Samples have been taken at intervals throughout the week,” he said. “Testing takes an annoyingly long time.”
The village will release test results “as they come into us,” Klima said. “The test results will not only be informative, but they will help our response team make subsequent plans for the rest of the response and return us to normal as soon as possible.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is continues to conduct air quality tests that “indicate the air is safe,” Klima said.
“The well source and distribution network of our Shorewood municipal water system was not compromised,” Klima said. “We continue to work on containing contaminated areas and extract as much foreign material as possible.”
Klima referred residents to a flyer developed by Illinois Department of Public Health and the Will County Health Department that can be found online at https://willcountyhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/FAQs-Shorewood-Fire-7.22.2022.pdf.
He invited residents to email questions to info@vil.shorewood.il.us.
This is a developing story. Check for updates.
Source: The Daily Chronicle
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