Despite moving indoors due to inclement weather, Champaign residents stayed to learn about the city’s findings concerning a potential health and pollution concern.

The Champaign County Health Care Consumers, or CCHCC, presented the test results of toxic material taken from an underground pipe near the banks of Boneyard Creek, which was excavated and plugged in “June”:https://www.dailyillini.com/index.php/article/2011/06/after_lawsuit_threat_champaign_to_remove_pipe.

The test results showed that nine different semi-volatile compounds and one volatile organic compound were found in coal tar extracted from the pipe, which has now been plugged. Some chemicals were found at levels more than 15,000 times higher than the safety level under normal conditions. Benzoate pyrene, one of the chemicals found at the site, was reported at levels of 1300 milligrams per kilogram, well above what is considered a safe maximum of .09 milligrams per kilogram.

The contamination problem was brought to the city’s attention in June 2010 after the CCHCC collected samples from the pipe, which they said was four blocks long and running parallel and south to the railroad tracks near the Hill Street neighborhood. Claudia Lennhoff, executive director of the CCHCC, said she and the organization were very pleased with the city’s efforts, in which Champaign agreed to excavate the pipe after a notice of “intent to sue”:https://www.dailyillini.com/index.php/article/2011/04/health_care_group_looks_to_take_action_at_boneyard_creek from the CCHCC.

What the organization hopes for now is for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, to acknowledge such a problem exists. However, the agency has not confirmed anything yet, said Grant Antoline, community organizer for the CCHCC.

In 1915, Antoline said a report was filed about contamination stemming from that same pipe, with results from then also suggesting high levels of waste reminiscent of a gas plant.

“That pipe has been in existence for 150 years and has been actively dumping hundreds of thousands of cubic gallons of coal tar into the creek,” Antoline said. “It was so present that when the Boneyard would flood, it would push the tar into people’s yards so much that it would cause them to be black.”

Based on the data compiled from the report, the CCHCC believes Ameren’s former manufactured gas plant is the likely culprit of the contamination. Antoline said Ameren is up to date on the situation and is willing to help. However, it is up to the Illinois EPA to step in and to order an investigation.

“I hope they take this seriously now,” Antoline said. “When all four previous sampling problems, including their own, state a contamination problem, it is their responsibility to act.”

Lennhoff said she believes the contamination is like “a sleeping giant” and could become a bigger problem if not treated soon. Life-threatening cancers, female reproductive issues, sterility and other medical problems could be to blame on the contamination.

Ebbie Cook, a longtime Champaign resident, said he felt the Hill Street neighborhood is being cornered on all sides from contamination and that something must be done before the residents feel its negative effects.

“We are calling on the city of Champaign to join the residents of 5th and Hill to demand that the Illinois EPA fully investigate and clean up toxic contamination associated with this pipe,” Cook said. “The Illinois EPA already has let us down by not finding the pipe in the first place; we will not let them ignore it a second time around.”