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Superfund Program Implements the Recovery Act

Outboard Marine Corporation/Plant 2

Waukegan, Illinois

Site Description
Plant 2, a former outboard motor manufacturing facility, is one of four cleanup projects that make up the Outboard Marine Corporation (OMC) site.  OMC is located in a marine recreational and industrial area on Lake Michigan, about 40 miles north of Chicago.  The OMC Plant 2 cleanup project is a 60-acre lakefront parcel that contains an abandoned 1,060,000 square-foot industrial facility, which operated from about 1948 until December 2000.  The facility had used polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)-containing hydraulic and lubricating oils in its production lines, routinely discharging some of the fluids into outside holding lagoons or ponds.  Plant 2 also discharged fluids via sewer lines into Waukegan Harbor, another OMC cleanup project.  This discharge became the source of PCB contamination in the harbor sediment.  Leaking degreasers and/or trichloroethylene (TCE) storage tanks over the years created a widespread ground water contaminant plume of dissolved TCE and a sizeable pool of pure, undissolved TCE dense non-aqueous phase liquids (DNAPL) beneath the site.  Much of the OMC site is now owned by the City of Waukegan, which has plans to redevelop this former industrial lakefront property.

Cleanup Activities to Date
EPA listed the site on the National Priorities List in 1983.  EPA conducted several removal actions to stabilize the site once OMC abandoned it 2002 and has issued two cleanup decision documents.  One document issued in 2007 addresses the PCB-impacted facility and soils, and a second one issued in February 2009 addresses cleanup of the ground water contaminant plume and DNAPL.  The City of Waukegan has already demolished portions of the Plant 2 facility in anticipation of site redevelopment.

Recovery Act Project Activity
EPA will use the $10-25 million in Recovery Act funds allocated to this site to conduct the demolition of the PCB-contaminated facility, and to excavate and dispose of off-site PCB-contaminated soil and sediment, in keeping with the 2007 cleanup decision document.  EPA plans to recycle as much of the non-contaminated steel and concrete as possible, and to ship all contaminated materials off-site for disposal.  Demolition of the building will enable the property redevelopment, in accordance with the City’s plans, while the later ground water restoration steps are underway.

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