Residents, mostly from the Westgate Neighborhood in The Glen in Glenview at Tuesday’s Glenview Village Board meeting concerned with a proposed Navy remediation project. (Tom Robb/Journal photo)
Village President Mike Jenny this week asked Deputy Village Manager Maggie Bosley to look into hiring an outside firm to monitor a planned U.S. Navy remediation project scheduled to begin next month.
Although nothing on Thursday’s (March 19) Glenview Village Board agenda mentioned the U.S. Navy or the planned remediation of a former burn pit and landfill from the 1950s and ‘60s off Buccaneer Drive in Glenview, residents from the Westgate neighborhood packed the village board meeting and raised the issue.
The area was part of Naval Air Station Glenview (NASG) from 1937 to 1995, which is now The Glen, a mixed-use development. According to Navy reports, the landfill and burn pit contain household and base refuse, construction debris, and potentially oils, fuels and solvents. A 2005 assessment also identified benzo(a)pyrene, a carcinogen, in the soil.
“This is a United States Navy project led by the federal government. As a municipality, the village does not have regulatory authority over this project, and we do not have standing to intervene or stop it,” Jenny said at the meeting.
“Our focus has been, if this is happening, to see it’s done as safely and transparently as possible,” Jenny continued.
About 70 residents packed an open house hosted by the Navy on Tuesday, March 3 at the Glenview Park Center, learning specifics about the planned remediation of the site. The remediation would see phase one begin in April, requiring six weeks of equipment setup. Phase two (in late May/June) calls for 10 weeks of heavy excavation and soil removal, pending weather conditions. In phase three, a final four-week period will wrap up the project.
The project will involve approximately 750 covered trucks hauling an estimated 15,000 tons of waste to an off-site landfill, officials at the open house said. Navy officials said the trucks would be covered and soil wetted down so it does not fly into the air. Air and soil contamination monitoring stations would also be set up on site.
The Navy’s Site 26, fenced-off, off Buccaneer Drive in Glenview, earlier this month. (Tom Robb/Journal photo)
A 2.2-acre fenced-off area with no signage indicating a landfill or burn pit exists is located off Buccaneer Drive. Within that area is 1.5 acres of clay cap under top soil, located over a 0.67-acre area where the refuse is located, under another layer of soil.
Residents armed with maps asked why the proposed truck route discussed at the open house went through residential areas on Buccaneer Drive and not through adjacent industrial areas.
“The Navy offered nearby property owners money to use their property to access the site, but they wanted an unreasonable amount,” Jenny said at the meeting.
The two other possible routes that exist, besides Buccaneer Drive, are one through a parking lot to private roads, and the other that would cause trucks to likely travel through as many as three residential backyards.
A representative from the Westgate Homeowners Association said it was estimated that 20 to 30 trucks a day could be hauling out contaminated waste from the site. He said he understood the plan was developed before Westgate existed.
A map at a Navy open house at the Glenview Park Center this month shows how trucks will drive through Buccaneer Drive and other streets taking out contaminated dirt from what has become known as Site 26. (Tom Robb/Journal photo)
“We thoroughly investigated every possible alternative, including routes through the industrial park. Unfortunately, those roads are privately owned, and after extensive negotiations, we were unable to secure an access agreement to use them,” U.S. Navy Spokesman Matt Mogle said in an email to the Journal & Topics. “The route we selected was determined to be the safest and most direct public route available. We are using different roads for ‘in’ (to the site) and ‘out’ (from the site) to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion at key intersections, which we believe will be safer and less disruptive than having all trucks use a single two-way street.”
Residents have said using both directions of one street would reduce the number of impacted homes.
The Journal & Topics found an April 2018 remediation plan for the site, which appears to be the basis for what is proposed again this spring. That 2018 report lists capital cost for the project at $1,318,000, and the “Total Present Worth Cost” at $1,581,000.
“The primary source of funding for the Navy’s CERCLA cleanup activities is the Environmental Restoration, Navy (ER,N) appropriation,” Mogle said in an email Friday. “The ER,N program has allocated approximately $16 million to Naval Station Great Lakes for its environmental restoration activities since 2018. A portion of these installation-wide funds has been utilized to support ongoing and planned actions at Site 26, the Glenview Landfill.” Mogle said a final project cost for Site 26 would be available “once the remedial action is complete and the site is approved for closure by IEPA (Illinois Environmental Protection Agency).”
A senior aide to U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-9th) attended the open house.
“My team and I are working closely with the village of Glenview, the Navy, and our federal and state partners to ensure this project is completed with as little disruption to the community as possible,” Schakowsky said after the open house.
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