Environment

By Illinois Public Media News - An environmental group says Champaign is doing the right thing by plugging a pipe suspected of having dangerous chemicals located near the Boneyard Creek.

Champaign County Health Care Consumers reported in March that findings from environmental experts show pollutants exist in an old pipe that extends from the site of a former manufactured gas plant at Champaign’s 5th and Hill Streets.

By Illinois Public Media News - A health care advocates group says the findings of environmental experts from a Boneyard Creek pipeline confirm their fears about contaminants. 

Champaign County Health Care Consumers brought in the researchers to investigate the old pipe that extends from the site of a former manufactured gas plant at Champaign’s 5th and Hill Streets owned by Ameren.  Grant Antoline, an activist with the group, says lab results confirmed there was coal tar in the pipe, and it contained organic compounds like benzene, and hydrocarbons that exceed safety standards. 

By Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess - Wading in the frigid water of Boneyard Creek on Monday afternoon, a small team of community activists and environmental consultants collected samples from a clay pipe they believe once carried toxic chemicals from a nearby factory and continues to pollute the stream.

By Illinois Public Media News - Champaign’s City Council has recommended that it consider repealing the city’s groundwater ordinance – but on a case by case basis. 

A capacity crowd attended Tuesday night’s 4-hour study session, urging the council to force the Illinois EPA and Ameren to conduct a full remediation of the former manufactured gas plant site at 5th and Hill streets, that includes neighboring properties.

Resident Lillian Driver operates a day care out of her home, where evidence of 6 different chemicals was revealed in a recent test.

By Dan Petrella/CHAMPAIGN -- Residents of a Champaign neighborhood surrounding a former manufactured gas plant have gained a new ally in their push to change a law that they believe allows the power utility AmerenIP to leave contaminated groundwater at the site.

By Dan Petrella/CU-CitizenAccess — For more than a year, M.D. Pelmore and his neighbors around Fifth and Hill streets in Champaign have watched as a gigantic white tent has been moved around the fenced-in lot at the center of their neighborhood.