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IS CONTAINMENT PROTECTIVE OF HUMAN HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT? WHY IS BLUFF EROSION SUCH A THREAT? WHAT IS THE CURRENT LEGAL STATUS OF THE CLEANUP? WHO IS STEVEN POLLACK AND HOW CAN YOU HELP?
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Having grown up in the beautiful North Shore I was shocked and angered to learn the U.S. Government would treat this important ecological treasure that is the bluffs and ravines along Lake Michigan in such a careless way. Instead of hauling their military/industrial chemicals and waste to a landfill they callously dumped it into the ravines. Why, to save money? Because they have no respect for the beauty and history that is the North Shore? Fort Sheridan was a gift of 700 acres by the civic leaders of Chicago to the federal government and they defiled it by dumping highly toxic hazardous waste into the ravines! What really got me going though was the mockery the Army made of the analysis of alternatives. Containment of the waste was preferable to the Army over excavation because it only cost $16 million instead of the unknown cost of their less desired alternative. And why was the cost of excavation unknown? Because the Army refused to characterize the waste. In the Army's view, there was no need to characterize the waste because modern engineering would absolutely succeed at containing the waste. Excavation, on the other hand, might cost $36 million if the waste were not hazardous, $136 million if the waste were hazardous, and $711 million if, during excavation, the waste were discovered to be so hazardous that it triggered land disposal restrictions and had to be incinerated prior to land disposal. Are you starting to see what set me off? If the waste were indeed so hazardous that it needed to be incinerated prior to land disposal then how could the Army argue that containment of this un-incinerated waste next to Lake Michigan was safe? This was a sleight of hand whereby the Army looked at the worst case scenario for the less desired excavation alternative and only looked at the best case scenario for their desired containment alternative. So I started going to the Highland Park Public Library where the Army maintained a copy of the administrative record. I read and copied and sent Freedom of Information Act requests for more information. I wrote letters to the editor and called congressman Porter's office. I tried to figure out the environmental laws on the Cornell Law School website, one of the first to publish the Code of Federal Regulations on the internet. At one point I went to a restoration advisory board meeting and asked why no assessment of the million rounds of artillery fired into the lake was being conducted. I was told that the lake was public property and not subject to the base closure cleanup regulations. So I did more Freedom of Information Act requests for the chemical compounds used in the artillery and with the knowledge I gained on the Cornell site I files a citizen petition to the US EPA. They agreed to conduct a Preliminary Assessment into the potential release of chemicals from the artillery that threatened the water intake facilities of Highwood and Highland Park. The raw water intakes were tested and came up clean. That was when I realized I needed to know the law. After 12 years as a goldsmith, I closed up shop in order to attend law school. I am now in my third and final year at the Chicago - Kent College of Law. I now understand the legal framework of the cleanup process and am ready to challenge the containment decision as arbitrary and capricious. Of course the Army must first propose it as the final remedy before I can challenge it and they don't seem to be in any great hurry to do so. Best regards, Steven B. Pollack |
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If you want to know what you can do, stand up and being counted! Let your legislators know your feelings. You don't have to be a resident of Highland Park or Lake Forest to be concerned about this landfill. Lake Michigan is a critical national fresh water resource. Send your congressman an e-mail! Send your senator an e-mail! Send Governor Blagojevich e-mail! Send the president an e-mail! by Steven Pollack You can become a part of the good fight by helping cover the cost of advocacy in this matter. While not tax deductible, 100% of your donation will go towards either litigation expenses or the cost of publicizing this issue. Please e-mail me to let me know your views! This website launched 5/30/97
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I
became interested in Fort Sheridan environmental issues in 1994.
At that time I owned a jewelry store and, as a trained goldsmith, I
designed and created custom one-of-a-kind jewelry. As I sat at my
bench in Glencoe, I would ponder what I read in the local Highland Park
News about the base closure and the environmental mess the Army was
leaving behind.
