Outboard Marine Superfund site gets $18 million for cleanup
A piece of shoreline on the edge of Lake Michigan is slated to be revitalized using stimulus money awarded on February 19. An old plant, part of the Outboard Marine Corp. site, will be torn down to make way for a redevelopment effort designed to beautify the waterfront and make the area safe and clean of toxins discharged by the plant in the ’60s and ’70s. The city of Waukegan plans a mix of residential, commercial and green areas along the shore.
Paul Kakuris, president of the Illinois Dunesland Preservation Society, has publicly stated that the money will not be sufficient to cleanup asbestos contamination and questions proposed techniques to eliminate waste products as experimental or inadequate.
There is a plan in place to dredge the harbor, but no funding has yet been secured to move beyond the initial steps of building removal and site cleanup. The projected timeline, if properly funded, is four years.
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