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The USEPA has
placed 34 hazardous-waste disposal sites in Illinois on the
National Priorities List (NPL) and 25 sites are on notice and
pending for the NPL under the Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), more
commonly referred to as Superfund.
An additional 22 sites are undergoing corrective action involving
ground-water study under the Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA).
The Illinois Water Science Center of the USGS has assisted the
USEPA, Region 5,
Chicago, Ill., at selected sites by providing technical assistance
in the form of document reviews, site-specific and area-wide
characterizations of ground-water flow and quantity, provided and
assisted with technical training of USEPA personnel, and applied
research into more effective means of characterizing ground-water
flow.
Site-specific studies concerning the
characterization of ground-water flow and quantity include HOD
Landfill, Byron, Dirk's Farm, Parson's Casket, southeast Rockford,
and Tipton Farm in northern Illinois. Assistance provided to the
USEPA at these specific sites include performing aquifer tests,
measurement of surface- and ground-water levels, surface- and
ground-water-quality sampling, and geophysical logging. The USGS
has assisted the USEPA at these and other sites by technical
review of work plans and technical reports prepared by the USEPA
or its contractors.
In 1991, the USGS, in cooperation with the USEPA,
initiated area-wide studies designed to characterize the regional
hydrology and ground-water quality in north-central Illinois and
southern Wisconsin, with a focus on the Illinois cities of
Rockford and Belvidere, and the Calumet region of northeastern
Illinois and northwestern Indiana (metropolitan Chicago). These
areas are considered especially susceptible to ground-water
contamination because of the high density of industrial and
waste-disposal sites and the shallow depth to the underlying
glacial drift and fractured carbonate aquifers.
The Illinois Water Science Center of the USGS
along with USGS hydrologists and researchers throughout the Nation
have assisted the USEPA in the field testing of a variety of
ground-water technologies and instrumentation including packer
assemblies, borehole flowmeter logging, acoustic televiewer
logging, and borehole ground-penetrating radar. This is an effort
for more efficient characterization of ground-water flow and
contaminant transport. Special emphasis has been placed on
characterization of ground-water flow and contaminant transport in
fractured-rock aquifers.
An employee of the Illinois Water Science Center
has been detailed to the USEPA, Region 5 in Chicago since the late
1980's. This person assists in the coordination of programs and
activities between the USEPA and the USGS. This person also
provides technical assistance to the USEPA including reviewing
technical documents, and assisting in field activities at various
sites in the Region 5 area throughout the Midwest.
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