The Park District of Oak Park's three-year negotiations with
ComEd and Nicor Gas, result in a
$50 million cleanup of contaminated Barrie Park
BY LAURA A. PERNA

Recreational issues naturally dominate the agendas of park board meetings. Specifically, my board grapples with the lack of open space in the Oak Park community. The soil that creates that open space hardly was a concern for our board until late 1998. That's when Commonwealth Edison and Nicor Gas Co. informed the Park District of Oak Park that Barrie Park, a popular park we own, was on the site of a former manufactured gas plant, which was operated by their corporate predecessor.

The park district required the utilities to test the soil in the 3.5-acre park. The testing documented extensive contamination, and the park district closed Barrie Park in January 1999 to protect public health and safety. After nearly two and a half years of complex and often contentious negotiations, the park board secured a cleanup of this site that likely will set a precedent for similar projects in the future.

Barrie Park was, in fact, the site of the largest former manufactured gas plant in the state. And its location in a densely populated residential neighborhood, and not in an industrial park or on vacant land, posed a unique challenge for all parties in negotiating safe cleanup methods and standards.

Numerous manufactured gas plants operated around the state in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Used to heat and light homes in the area, the gas was manufactured by heating coal in a number of steps then separating and purifying the gas. One of the by-products of this process is an organic compound called coal tar, which has been proven in recent years to contain carcinogenic compounds. The contaminants include arsenic, benzene and pollutants known as polyaromatic hydrocarbons. By-products of the manufacturing process were left in the soils at Barrie Park and in subterranean structures, such as gasholders.

Aerial shots of Barrie Park, which occupies a full block south of the Eisenhower expressway and Gal-field Street and Lombard Avenue, before the cleanup started (left) and during excavation of the 85,000 tons of contaminated soil (right). The Sprung® structure (right) was erected to help control odors during excavation.

Negotiating Cleanup Standards

After learning the extent of contamination of the park through test results from soil sampling and analysis, the board of commissioners of the Park District of Oak Park felt it had no other recourse than to close Barrie Park. The board's priority was the safety of the public and the expedient return of the park to its users upon successful remediation.

The board hired environmental consultants, attorneys, and media professionals to negotiate in an informed and responsible manner to ensure long-term public safety. Park district staff devoted hundreds of hours of administrative time as well to these negotiations and the district as a whole incurred additional expenses for lost recreational opportunities due to the closure of the park. All of these factors were considered in the negotiations.

Assistance and input from the neighbors surrounding the park was asked for and provided by the Citizens Advisory Group and a neighborhood advocacy group called Barrie Residents Against Toxins (BRAT). Despite the utilities' objections, the park

March/April 2002    17

board ensured that they were held accountable, and kept the interests of the community and park district first and foremost during negotiations. As a result, in April 2000 the park district and the utilities signed a Remedial Objectives Agreement containing these critical principles:

• Removal of all contaminant source materials in Barrie Park;

• Remediarion of soil to ensure flexible development options in the future;

• Removal of the first ten feet of soil;

• Recovery of costs for consultants and replacement of park district programs; and

• $100 million in insurance to protect the Park District of Oak Park and the Village of Oak Park from present and future claims related to third party exposure to the waste from the plant.

To help ease the inconvenience caused by the closure of the park, the Park District of Oak Park forged an intergovernmental relationship with the Forest Preserve of Cook County for use of playing fields for soccer games formerly played in Barrie Park.

Ensuring a Protective Cleanup

Commonwealth Edison and Nicor Gas informed the park district that the utility companies would clean up the former manufactured gas plant, and other sites like it throughout the state, through a "voluntary" program overseen by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. But, before work could proceed, the Park District of Oak Park and the Village of Oak Park negotiated a joint access agreement that met the park district's stringent standards of accountability for ComEd and Nicor, both in the scope of work and schedule. During the course of the negotiations, the utilities often responded with very general courses of action.

Through collaborative insistence of our team of environmental, technical, legal, and media consultants, we devised and implemented a strategy that held the utilities accountable for fully restoring Barrie Park, securing the long-term safety, health, and fiscal well-being of the park district, as well as the community as a whole.

These innovative efforts included using a rail system to remove the contaminated soil from the park, thus avoiding a vast volume of truck traffic in the densely populated residential area and assuring a better quality of life for the residents of the neighborhood. The agreement included the construction of a rail spur off an existing rail line adjacent to Barrie Park.

Another obstacle in negotiations was indemnification and insurance for the park district against future liability associated with the cleanup work. The insurance required by the Remedial Objectives Agreement protects the park district and the community against the long-term presence of the contamination from the manufactured gas plant. Without this full protection, the district could be liable ad infinitum to lawsuits, which could result in its financial ruin. Persistent efforts to obtain this protection were taken through media events such as community meetings, public demonstrations, and use of the print media. In the end, these efforts paid off with utility indemnities and contractor-required insurance created to fit the unique requirements of the park district.

In June of 2001, after 14 months of negotiations, the Park District of Oak Park and the Village of Oak Park together ratified a joint access agreement. In combination with the unique Letter of Understanding that the park district negotiated with the utilities to identify specific items of Community Recreation Loss Compensation required under the Remedial Objectives Agreement, the following additional protective provisions now applied to the cleanup of Barrie Park.

• Timely remediation and restoration of Barrie Park

• Recovery of costs for replacement of specific recreational programming including:

     • creation of a temporary alternate community center and playground;

    • transportation to alternate recreational sites;

    • reimbursement for rentals of alternative open space activities such as soccer and baseball; and

    • payment of any increased costs of park facility maintenance due to expanded usage caused by the closure of
    Barrie Park and Center.

• Use of rail to transport soil to and from the site

• Full oversight by the park district's environmental representatives

• Indemnity and insurance protecting the Village of Oak Park and the park district against future claims associated with the plant cleanup

• New playground equipment at Barrie and Rehm parks

• Renovation to the Barrie Recreation Cents site

These agreements, reached in June 2001 are even more significant considering there are as many as 5,000 sites in the United States that could be contaminated by the by-products of manufactured gas plants.

"In addition to these large sites, historical sites like these are found throughout the state, including parks, military posts, and rail yards," says Ed Cooney, environmental representative for the Park District of Oak Park

"The negotiations achieved the best solution rather than a quick solution," says Pat Madden, chairperson of the Citizens Advisory Group.

Says park commissioner Karen Garbe: "The board of commissioners understood in no uncertain terms that agreeing to anything less was unacceptable."

In the final analysis, it will cost the utilities in excess of $50 million to return Barrie Park and its environs to the community. The target date for full restoration and reopening of the park is August 2003.

This was a process that was certainly daunting at the outset. I am proud of the park board and park district staff for their perseverance. Thoughtful, informed negotiation and persistence has paid off.

Says park commissioner David Gullo: "The community will be protected while returning a valued park to a safe condition generations of users to come."

LAURA A. PERNA
is the president of the Park District of Oak Park boarder commissioners. She has a degree in Biological Science from Southern Illinois University and has performed biomedical research in the public and private sector. Perna dedicates this article to her fellow board members, citizens, the staff of the Park District of Oak Park and the Village or Oak Park board and staff who have dedicated themselves to seeing this through to completion.

18   Illinois Parks and Recreation