EPA Holds Forum On Cleanup Of Former Zinc Facility In Vermilion County

The Environmental Protection Agency is seeking input on the cleanup of one of the most hazardous sites in the U.S.

More than a hundred homes located near the former Hegeler Zinc facility just south of Danville were exposed to high levels of arsenic and lead.

Douglas Toole, the director of environmental health with the Vermilion County Health Department, said one proposed plan would replace contaminated soil around the site with clean soil. 

“It may not be the ultimate solution to it, obviously every time the wind blows or we get a hard rainfall, some of that may wash over, but hopefully it’s not going to get as far as people’s yards where it is now,” Toole said.

Site operations at the former zinc smelting facility stopped in 1987, and in 2003, the EPA put up a chain-link fence to block people from coming onto the site.

At 6:30pm on Thursday at Danville’s David S. Palmer Arena, EPA officials will speak with residents of the affected homes.