EPA Raids Offices Of Town That Knowingly Supplied Contaminated Water
CRESTWOOD, Ill. — Federal agents raided a Chicago suburb's government offices Wednesday to look for evidence of any crimes related to allegations the village knowingly drew drinking water from a tainted well for decades.
Around a dozen agents from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies entered Crestwood's village hall and public works department around 9 a.m., remaining there into the afternoon, EPA officials at the scene said.
"We're looking for evidence of environmental crimes," said Randall Ashe, the EPA's special agent in charge of criminal investigations. Ashe said that involved looking at documents and possibly conducting interviews, but he declined to elaborate.
Crestwood Mayor Robert Stranczek, who met angry residents over the weekend to address the allegations, was at the village hall as agents conducted their search, Ashe said. He declined to say whether Stranczek was interviewed.
At that meeting, Stranczek told attendees, "I can tell you the water is safe today, will be safe tomorrow and will be safe into the future."
A telephone message left at the mayor's office Wednesday afternoon was not returned.
The execution of search warrants followed a recent Chicago Tribune report that Crestwood officials concealed the presence of chemicals in the water. State officials in the mid-1980s found the well contained chemicals linked to cancer, but village officials allegedly continued to draw the water, according to the Tribune report.
Wednesday's raid didn't suggest there was any immediate threat to the health of residents in Crestwood, said EPA spokeswoman Anne Rowan, speaking by telephone from inside the village hall.
"There is no reason for the public to be alarmed," she said.
One area congressmen, U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, welcomed the federal action. "We want the truth to come out on this matter and we want the Crestwood residents to be made whole" he said in a statement.
Records show state EPA officials cited contaminated tap water in Crestwood in the '80s, saying it contained dangerous chemicals related to a dry-cleaning solvent, according to the Tribune.
The water was contaminated with chemicals linked to perchloroethylene, or PCE, which is believed to cause cancer.
Village officials then allegedly told state regulators they would draw tap water from Lake Michigan, but Crestwood continued to draw the contaminated well water. At times, up to 20 percent of the village's water supply came from the contaminated well, according to the Tribune.
During the two decades, as residents of the village of about 11,000 unknowingly drank the water, officials touted Crestwood's cheap water rates, the Tribune reported.
The contaminated well was not shut off until late 2007, after EPA officials tested the water and found contamination.
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On the Net:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: http://www.epa.gov/
Illinois EPA: http://www.epa.state.il.us/
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| 04/29/09 08:55 PM |