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Here's the problem with Superfund sites they dredge up contaminated soil and ship it out to where there is pristine land that's just moving one problem into tomorrow's problem
Danville IL has a superfund site too. It's actually located in Hegeler IL just south of Danville. Look due west of town then look for Grape Creek and you will see it. It's another former zinc smelting facility.
These companies just claim bankruptcy and open under another name. That's how they get out of cleaning up this shit. But I agree completely. They should be on the hook to clean up their mess. Google Lipari Landfill here in my home state. The government paid for the clean up
Not the first one and it won't be the last one the biggest problem is these clowns file for bankruptcy when their company is done indigenous left up to the taxpayers to clean up their site that they contaminated good example was the Love canal in upstate New York they were dumping nothing but toxic drums that leeched out 30-40 years later , everyone started getting cancer ,
We here in Illinois have a state funded EPA so it can harass car owners with unnecessary emission tests leading to expensive repairs. They only pick the low hanging fruit so to speak.
I've never once done a smog test. Nor heard of friends or family done one. You must pretty far north. Seriously, Illinois is beautiful. You can hunt off your deck here, and still be to IKEA in 25 minutes. No smog, no one breathing down your neck.
I worked at the mushroom farm from 1980 till it's closing , Jan 2023. There were more than a hundred people who lost their job. At its peak, there were over 500 employees. That's not the problem, the problem is the higher rate of cancer and illnesses coming from the toxicity from the zinc plant. I put in an application for a job there before working at the farm. Glad I didn't get an offer. The corporations need to be held accountable and or sued to oblivion to get something done. As the saying goes - "I have no dog in this fight", but I have worked with and know many who do.
I am from Granite City, IL and I would say that we are #1. The EPA took my grandmother's yard. Scrape cleans everywhere. Slag piles and a MASSIVE steel mill complex with other heavy industrial sites rusting away. Oh, and there is a coke plant, coke for making steel, not for drinking. We have a TOTALLY polluted oxbow lake too, Horseshoe Lake. It is literally in contact with the sacrifice zone that is Granite City Steel.
Ottawa is a superfund site also. The Radium Girls statue is not uniquely Ottawa. This is what you get when you want industrialization. I see the comments blaming current politicians but let's be honest, this damage was done before most were even born. You still run a risk of poisoning by placing a garden in your lawn all through The Illinois River Valley.
Yes! Thank you. People love to complain about regulation, and then are outraged by the lack of accountability. Ask forgiveness, not permission, etc. These towns were sacrificed in the name of progress and yet we want it both ways. Choose regulation or the courts after the fact, unless someone has a new idea.
I can imagine...Libbey Owens Ford Glass Company released their water into retention land. That was common practice all over the United States. I worked in the Lathrop, CA Plant up into the 90s.
Ottawa il. Timex watches that glowed on the dials. That was radioacrive paint. Also, i was told by locals...the pit. The people timwx had painting them, were short a few cells and would rub it on their teeth for jokes. In the dark it would glow.
@@Buckseed The current administration has already said they will relax all environmental regulations and defund whatever enforcement there is. This is what they are. Their cult leader has already made speeches about "how terrible and unfair mining regulations are." Well you simpletons who voted that way can just reap what you sew. That includes most of the toothless townies in that craphole Illinois town who voted for him.
Went through DePue a few times this spring. Moonscape right in the middle of town with smoke emitting from the earth. I asked a lady at the dollar store what was up with that, she says " I don't know what you're talking about" . Had to drive through again just to see it one more time.
My grandmother lived in a small town in New Jersey, only 6 miles outside Manhattan. After she passed away and I moved into her house to get it up to code for sale, I did a little research and ended up finding evidence of at least 43 EPA Superfund sites in that one small town alone!
@stephenbrand5661 Lemme guess, Secaucus? I live in south Jersey. I'm well aware of our dubious distinction of having the most Superfund sites in the country. I live only a few miles from the former Lipari Landfill in Gloucester County
It's not Algae...it's Duck weed. It's a plant that doubles in mass every 48 hours. It is very beneficial in sequestration of toxins. It is also being used to create high quality protein supplements. Look it up. The reason the other lakes have little (or less) Duckweed has more to do with fish and wildlife that is present, whereas not so present in the toxic lakes. Also the inflow and outflow of those lakes has an effect, although not covered in this piece it would be worth a little research. Great work though! Lovin all of your videos, thanks for all your efforts!.
NJZ had a plant in Palmerton, PA. Back in the '50's they did something that killed EVERY tree within a 2 or 3 mi radius. All thru the '60's and '70's tha area around palmerton was barren, like a moon scape. Eventually, the soil was able to clense itself, and the forests returned.
Excellent and extremely thorough evaluation of what has befallen a relatively voiceless small community. On so many levels it is explained and illustrated as to the why, how and where this came to be. This needless ecological disaster did not just come out of the blue! A wake up call for everyone.
The IL EPA is nearly broke. There have been several independent water quality surveys done in various areas over the last 20 yrs that dispute the EPA numbers. In reality, the librarian is correct. If not for the proximity to the IL river, this town would be left to whatever nature wanted to do with the toxins. If not for said waste, DePue could be as nice as Princeton.
There’s a lot of secrets out here at the lake of Egypt near Marion Illinois I’ve heard so much growing up how the water is so tainted but nothing gets done
Im from Illinois. Im 400 miles south of there... heard of it accually. never been there. but with pritsgrrrr as our "chief in command" i dont for see this getting cleaned with help from Illinois EPA its about as useless as well a blade of tall grass on mowing day. i think exxon moblie needs to be held accountable and i think this needs to be ramped up.
Did this happen under Pritzker? No it didn't. The problem is local Republican politicians taking money from corporations to look the other way while they destroy everything, than walk away while counting their profits.
@ No? you like everyone else who assumes Illinois is some tiny state need to look at a map. Altho i was off just a little... i google maps it. im approx 330 miles or 5 1/2 hours from there. i do apologize for miss leading in the original post. in between Paducah Kentucky and ST Louis Missouri.
It took so long for them to clean up the Love Canal and Seymour Disposal that I feel sad for your town. They need to research better ways that companies responsible can decontaminate toxic waste and catch the fumes. Those companies are reaping the profits, they should pay.
The Love Canal story is appalling... the managers who make decisions to save a few bucks by foisting problems off onto kids and their local school district never even faced mild criticism from their peers, community, or the government.
You should come to the Michigan city of riverview. Can't even get it on the superfind list because it would cost too much to clean up. Land just sits there polluted, vacant, and fenced in. The Corp won't touch it. Cancer rates unexplained.
Wow! Me and my wife had our anniversary trip close to Princeton and decided to visit each local town around there. And we visited Depue! That was only a few weeks ago. It's just crazy to visit the town and then see a video about it.
Wonderful job Chris. I've been through here, and all up and down the canals in the area. I was unaware of the toxicity of this lake and I'm a big local history and local nature buff. I hope your video helps raise awareness.
My dad and grandad and great grandad lived there from the I'm guessing the 1910s-1950s. The dry goods store you mentioned was theirs. Joe Bender-Max Bender and my dad Sol.
There are slag piles all up and down this corridor along the Illinois River. Chris, you can build a lifetime career reporting on these companies in that region. It's tragic that such beautiful country can be so heavily polluted. I'd start focusing on the Midewin Tallgrass Preserve off Lorenzo Rd on I-55. It looks like Mordor at night through that area.
Chris, I follow your channel and I’m in Louisiana. I just got back from working in Illinois and stayed in Peoria for 2 months. I covered service calls along the Illinois and Des Plaines River and was dispatched up there in Peru 3 weeks ago. I appreciate the info.
It’s Savanna and it’s in Carroll County , Illinois the county that only had one Democratic candidate on our ballot and it was Harris. Guess we’re smarter than rest of Illinois. Our migrants are legal, we don’t do DEI but do personal responsibility. Proud to be from a county who judges people individually for their action versus group mentality. Leave that type of thinking to shitty cities. Proud of our employers in area which help to support our volunteer fire departments. 1 stop light in entire county and that’s for idiot tourists who don’t know how to drive.
If your in the area 10miles east in Lasalle has a superfund site too, all the towns in the area are superfunds cause of all the mines just look for little mountains in the area
Coming to a town near you.foveenebt have plans for 49 states to be mined. They keep saying we have to have LITHIUM for car batteries QUARTZ for chips and phon
Wow another small town left to die by the state of Illinois. I wouldn't trust the state at all about the water testing..I would have moved out years ago and never looked back. For working the site for clean up this is taking way way too long and it looks like Illinois doesn't have the money to fix the problem. There latest financial reports seem to show the state is broke and it's going to get worse before it ever gets better. Great job on the video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I live about 30ish miles away in streator and has no idea of this. We have an old fertilizer plant property that still has a giant pile of gypsum, right next to where our water comes. Look at it on a satellite view and you'll be able to see where it is in a heartbeat.
The US EPA is in charge of superfund sites not IEPA. Congress gave the authority to the EPA in 1980 through the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act or CERCLA. Congress needs to allocate more funds to help clean up all of these sites.
I've been to DePue a few times when photographing trains on the Iowa Interstate Railroad. I remember a billboard by the slag pile that said something like "CBS/Viacom Clean Up Your Mess". Crazy that the area that is supposed cleaned up now has solar panels which will eventually leak more toxic chemicals. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is a joke. Coal mines have retention ponds that are supposed to be cleaned up when the mine is closed, but they've let a lot of them in place. They're also letting a coal mining company in Southern Illinois pump huge volumes of high sulfate water into the Big Muddy River.
CBS Corporation, now named Paramount Global, came to own part of the mine after inheriting it from its time as Viacom; in 1995, Viacom bought Paramount Communications, which was formerly named Gulf+Western, which bought the Paramount movie studio and New Jersey Zinc in 1966.
First time I've seen a logical explanation for CBS' role in the whole deal. Tried looking it up based on the info you just gave and I still can't find anything that confirms it.
My guess is that the companies operating at these sites were likely in compliance with the laws that were on the books at that time. If so, it would not be likely or even fair to hold them responsible for prior lawful actions just because a need was seen for putting a more stringent law in place once the problem was recognized. I'm sure when the plants were running, most of the people's main concerns probably centered around the good jobs they had. The exposed slag piles need to have an impermeable plastic barrier put over them along with a layer of dense clay. This will prevent contaminated run off. There is no way you can prevent these ox-bow lakes from filling in. Essentially all ox-bow lakes fill in and become farm fields eventually. Your algae problem revolves around having shallow, warm water bodies that are revved up with some of the phosphates still hanging around from the fertilizer plant that had operated here. My advice would be to do what you can to prevent runoff, level the site as much as possible, and work with a major utility to cover the whole site with solar panels with the caveat that everyone living in the affected area receive free electricity for as long as the solar site is in operation. If you think the state of Illinois is going to put any money into cleaning up the mess you are living in dream land. The democrats running the state have committed all the taxpayers' money to buying municipal employee unions votes by supplying them with lucrative insurance and pension benefits, resulting in the state being roughly 200 billion in the hole. Fat ass Pritzker will never come and see your problem. He's too busy sitting in Chicago eating donuts.
I went to high school between Spring Valley and Peru, and remember going to Depue for a basketball game. It was a strange feeling to look out the bus window at a glowing pile of what looked like gravel off to the side of the road. This was late 60's, large factory was still there, didn't have any idea of what was produced there. There were many slag piles on the area from old mines. We climbed some of them (Spring Valley, Dalzell) and saw many others in the area. It is depressing to return to the LAsalle-Peru area and see the decline over the years. The federal and state governments have abandoned any attempt to hold corporations responsible for the messes they create, and its going to get a lot worse with the incoming administration promising to remove regulations when the regulations were already totally inadequate.
The current administration also did nothing to make it better and it ignored the majority of the demographic that lives in theese river valley areas and across the country who came out in bigger numbers to vote this time. Instead they focused on gender identity, abortion, Hispanic/Black/Female voters. I'm not saying the upcoming administration will fix anything either. I just refuse to let you try and blame a decades old problem on an administration that didnt exist when the administration you clearly prefer did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with their term.
In fact, in our opinion, Illinois is one of the most beautiful in terms of vistas. Have you been to the west side - the driftless region? Scales Mound? Galena? Ever driven through the small town of Mt. Carroll? Visited Lake Summerset ever? Oh and the views in Chicago are phenomenal. There is great beauty to behold in waving fields of tall corn and wheat in the summertime.
Oh yeah Chicago looks beautiful... from a distance. Drive through downtown and the surrounding areas and all you see is trash and badly repaired streets. It's 3rd world.
Hey Chris, big fan of your videos. I want to ask if its ok if I use a few minutes, maybe 5 or so, of your video on Harvey Illinois. Im gona do a video about their corrupt mayor soon.
Property taxes amongst others is sky high in crooked Illinois. Controlled by 5 democrat counties the rest of the state is held hostage. The state has plenty of money but it just disappears..........
South in Illinois, where I live, the water is also tainted. Excess nitrates from fertilizers and chemicals from pesticides and herbicides used in the pre-1990's.
This happens everywhere in Illinois. I know of several oil well leaks and abandoned open oil wells. Farmers are just as bad. We used to catch fish in all the small creeks but those days are long since gone. Sad!
Very unfortunate for this community since they are on their own with no State support. Very sad story and at the very minimum the village should be receiving all the solar farm revenues as partial payment from the company.
They care less about anyplace other than adding funds to their pockets. Top soil added to things never fixes its a bandage to cover but never does anything
I ran a Schwan's home delivery route there a few years ago I always wondered what that residue I saw on the hills was .every one I serviced there was very nice . Terrible that they were treated that way.
Billionaire Governor JaBa Pritzker can't be bothered with any of this. He's too busy trying to turn Illinois...or at least the Metro Area...into a Quantum research Hub.
Isn't it amazing... .God forbid if your car has the Engine light on.....but De-Pue toxic Lake and clean up site are in compliance with the State of Illinois EPA regulations. Good job Democrats!👍
It seems the solar scam is the new go-to answer for contaminated sites. I just read about a similar plan in Pittsburg's Swisshelm Park, an old slag dumping site that was planned to be remediated by a housing developer but now will be a solar farm instead.
The Illinois EPA doesn't care at all. Ask anyone living in superfund sights all along the Illinois River. Actually you should do a video on Lasalle and their problems with Carus Chemical dragging their feet on their damage from a explosion last January 11th. 2023. The citizens could use some help getting their story told. I'd contact Jamie Hicks. He's not shutting up. He's a good man.
EPA is only allowed to test for things on the list that they are allowed to test for. Big companies pay EPA to keep their chemicals off that approved list,
My sister lives in bradley by the sewer plant... She has had 4 dogs diagnosed and died from rare people cancers. Her and my niece suddenly have autoimmune disease. She has lived there over 40 yes. Dogs died last 4 yea.. and a few cats..all from cancer...diagoned autoimmune last 2 yrs....something not right
Interesting! I was caught up in that flood in Oct '20 delivering a boat from chi to the gulf. Hunkered down in Ottowa for a few days to let the river level peak, then went right by here, I recall passing Peru. There is a lot of industry along the river you'd never know was there. The reality is, there's no way to clean up a town like this. Once you've disturbed buried formations of minerals through mining, the jig is up, the surface will remain contaminated forever. You can maybe cap it with clay or concrete, but it will still shed. There is no place to move contaminated soils to, who would take it? Really, abandonment is what happens. Stabilize it and leave. If the river wasn't there I suppose you could continue with a dirty industry since the damage is permanent already I guess. It's a pretty area and it's a shame, but that's the sins of the past and it's no surprise that we've out sourced materials to places like China.
The town's residents need to hire an independent firm to represent them and do their own tests to ensure that the issue is actually fixed. ILEPA is a bad joke.
Trees growing on a pile of toxic waste? It's pretty lazy to over use the "toxic waste" term. You could talk about what is actually present. Toxic tends to mean things can't live. There is no doubt that there was likely valuable materials just left behind which end up being pollutants because of their concentration. Most corporate leaders have little vision and run away rather than leaving a legacy of responsibility. It's just icing on the cake that they get the tax payers to clean it up.
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@@ChrisHarden Thanks. I use to have distant Family in DePue. Now I wonder what killed them.
Here's the problem with Superfund sites they dredge up contaminated soil and ship it out to where there is pristine land that's just moving one problem into tomorrow's problem
I've lived in Illinois for all of my 60 trips around the Sun, and I've always thought that Springfield was Illinois' most toxic town.
Well...
Danville IL has a superfund site too. It's actually located in Hegeler IL just south of Danville. Look due west of town then look for Grape Creek and you will see it. It's another former zinc smelting facility.
Now that’s funny!
The company that left the slag pile should be sued for millions and forced to clean up their mess.
These companies just claim bankruptcy and open under another name. That's how they get out of cleaning up this shit. But I agree completely. They should be on the hook to clean up their mess. Google Lipari Landfill here in my home state. The government paid for the clean up
Not the first one and it won't be the last one the biggest problem is these clowns file for bankruptcy when their company is done indigenous left up to the taxpayers to clean up their site that they contaminated good example was the Love canal in upstate New York they were dumping nothing but toxic drums that leeched out 30-40 years later , everyone started getting cancer ,
They file for bankruptcy usually and then taxpayers are on the hook for it.
ExxonMobil. The government gives them enough corporate welfare they can afford it.
No. The people that made that decision should spend their lives in prison.
I had no clue this existed, thanks for the informative video! Interesting!
We here in Illinois have a state funded EPA so it can harass car owners with unnecessary emission tests leading to expensive repairs. They only pick the low hanging fruit so to speak.
I've never once done a smog test. Nor heard of friends or family done one. You must pretty far north.
Seriously, Illinois is beautiful. You can hunt off your deck here, and still be to IKEA in 25 minutes. No smog, no one breathing down your neck.
@@nes999 There are parts of Illinois I like, but not near Chicago. I've moved to Wisconsin, no longer a flatlander or FIB, lol! How bout da Bears?
💥👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
@@nes999 Chicago and some of the suburbs require emissions testing and compliance.
I like the interviews with the locals! Nice feature to add to this, hopefully this will help these people get some attention to the problem.
This is real journalism. I was born in this area. Thank you.
I worked at the mushroom farm from 1980 till it's closing , Jan 2023. There were more than a hundred people who lost their job. At its peak, there were over 500 employees. That's not the problem, the problem is the higher rate of cancer and illnesses coming from the toxicity from the zinc plant. I put in an application for a job there before working at the farm. Glad I didn't get an offer. The corporations need to be held accountable and or sued to oblivion to get something done. As the saying goes - "I have no dog in this fight", but I have worked with and know many who do.
While the zinc plant was operating if anyone would have tried to do anything about this everyone would be screaming about losing the jobs.
High lead level in children in the surrounding areas😢
No accountability for big corporations
neither our politians, but people think they still have to vote
I am from Granite City, IL and I would say that we are #1. The EPA took my grandmother's yard. Scrape cleans everywhere. Slag piles and a MASSIVE steel mill complex with other heavy industrial sites rusting away. Oh, and there is a coke plant, coke for making steel, not for drinking. We have a TOTALLY polluted oxbow lake too, Horseshoe Lake. It is literally in contact with the sacrifice zone that is Granite City Steel.
I used to work for a chemical recycling company and we had to learn all the hazmat stuff.This is one of the super funds that we learned about.
If corruption has a state of the art, Illinois is that state.
Ottawa is a superfund site also. The Radium Girls statue is not uniquely Ottawa. This is what you get when you want industrialization. I see the comments blaming current politicians but let's be honest, this damage was done before most were even born. You still run a risk of poisoning by placing a garden in your lawn all through The Illinois River Valley.
I've been drinking and eating the food here all my life probably explains why everyone dies of cancer
The smell mid summer 😢
Yes! Thank you. People love to complain about regulation, and then are outraged by the lack of accountability. Ask forgiveness, not permission, etc. These towns were sacrificed in the name of progress and yet we want it both ways. Choose regulation or the courts after the fact, unless someone has a new idea.
Another situation where the connected Illinois leaders are struggling with arithmetic
While syphoning money off the tax cattle.
In the land where nothing gets accomplished, it’ll be a snowball day in hell before this toxic mess is ever dealt with. (I’m from Illinois).
We call it the stinkin Lincoln.
Write the billionaire governor, he'll take care of it! 😄
@@kellipatton8263I’m in lyin Ryan hometown.. and dealt with on oil spill that contaminated our wells for years ..
don't worry Pritzker is all over this.
@ I hope so. The way other governors kicked the can down the road on this mess is appalling.
There's radium in the ground all over my Hometown here in Ottawa Illinois
I can imagine...Libbey Owens Ford Glass Company released their water into retention land. That was common practice all over the United States. I worked in the Lathrop, CA Plant up into the 90s.
Ottawa il. Timex watches that glowed on the dials. That was radioacrive paint.
Also, i was told by locals...the pit.
The people timwx had painting them, were short a few cells and would rub it on their teeth for jokes. In the dark it would glow.
@@Buckseed The current administration has already said they will relax all environmental regulations and defund whatever enforcement there is. This is what they are. Their cult leader has already made speeches about "how terrible and unfair mining regulations are." Well you simpletons who voted that way can just reap what you sew. That includes most of the toothless townies in that craphole Illinois town who voted for him.
Made a video on Ottawa about 4 years ago. I've gained some video editing/making skills since then lol
@ChrisHarden I definitely watched it and yes you've came a far way man
Went through DePue a few times this spring. Moonscape right in the middle of town with smoke emitting from the earth. I asked a lady at the dollar store what was up with that, she says " I don't know what you're talking about" . Had to drive through again just to see it one more time.
The smell in mid Summer 😢
There's no money in cleaning up😅. Its usually just relocated anyway. Toxic is a perfect description of our current state of affairs. Tya kindly
it'd be better away from the lake that's right next to a major waterway.
My grandmother lived in a small town in New Jersey, only 6 miles outside Manhattan.
After she passed away and I moved into her house to get it up to code for sale, I did a little research and ended up finding evidence of at least 43 EPA Superfund sites in that one small town alone!
Dang. Companies just didn’t know or care back then
@stephenbrand5661 Lemme guess, Secaucus? I live in south Jersey. I'm well aware of our dubious distinction of having the most Superfund sites in the country. I live only a few miles from the former Lipari Landfill in Gloucester County
@FixIt1975 Close, same county!
Kearny
@@ChrisHardenDidn't? That implies they learned their lesson and stopped doing these practices. They still don't.
They knew @@ChrisHarden
It's not Algae...it's Duck weed. It's a plant that doubles in mass every 48 hours. It is very beneficial in sequestration of toxins. It is also being used to create high quality protein supplements. Look it up. The reason the other lakes have little (or less) Duckweed has more to do with fish and wildlife that is present, whereas not so present in the toxic lakes. Also the inflow and outflow of those lakes has an effect, although not covered in this piece it would be worth a little research. Great work though! Lovin all of your videos, thanks for all your efforts!.
Learning new things everyday, good catch
Inflows and outflows are difficult to calculate considering flood events.
NJZ had a plant in Palmerton, PA. Back in the '50's they did something that killed EVERY tree within a 2 or 3 mi radius. All thru the '60's and '70's tha area around palmerton was barren, like a moon scape. Eventually, the soil was able to clense itself, and the forests returned.
Excellent and extremely thorough evaluation of what has befallen a relatively voiceless small community. On so many levels it is explained and illustrated as to the why, how and where this came to be. This needless ecological disaster did not just come out of the blue! A wake up call for everyone.
I live an hour from there and had no idea. It's a shame--it's a beautiful area.
Yes it is. Except for that place.
I saw the title and thought they gotta be talking about DePue. Clicked on and yes. Wow.
The IL EPA is nearly broke. There have been several independent water quality surveys done in various areas over the last 20 yrs that dispute the EPA numbers. In reality, the librarian is correct. If not for the proximity to the IL river, this town would be left to whatever nature wanted to do with the toxins. If not for said waste, DePue could be as nice as Princeton.
Hey Chris, can you do a video of sheffield illinois. I would be willing to help??
Email me! - Or dm on one of my other social media accounts
@@ChrisHardenhey Chris can you do one on Asheville NC
There’s a lot of secrets out here at the lake of Egypt near Marion Illinois I’ve heard so much growing up how the water is so tainted but nothing gets done
Seeing a power plant right on the lake sure makes me wanna take a dip in the water...NOT.
Im from Illinois. Im 400
miles south of there... heard of it accually. never been there. but with pritsgrrrr as our "chief in command"
i dont for see this getting cleaned with help from Illinois EPA its about as useless as well a blade of tall grass
on mowing day. i think exxon moblie needs to be held accountable and i think this needs to be ramped up.
Did this happen under Pritzker? No it didn't. The problem is local Republican politicians taking money from corporations to look the other way while they destroy everything, than walk away while counting their profits.
And what spread the love keep your toxic mess
400 miles south of Depue? That's Tennessee.
@ No? you like everyone else who assumes Illinois is some tiny state need to look at a map. Altho i was off just a little... i google maps it. im approx 330 miles or 5 1/2 hours from there. i do apologize for miss leading in the original post. in between Paducah Kentucky and ST Louis Missouri.
@ Negitive.
It took so long for them to clean up the Love Canal and Seymour Disposal that I feel sad for your town. They need to research better ways that companies responsible can decontaminate toxic waste and catch the fumes. Those companies are reaping the profits, they should pay.
Those companies are just taking as much time as they can through cycles of environmental studies. It has to be aggravating for the ppl here
The Love Canal story is appalling... the managers who make decisions to save a few bucks by foisting problems off onto kids and their local school district never even faced mild criticism from their peers, community, or the government.
Toxic waste dump,this is whats left when corporate thugs leave!
Good work.
Thank you
You should come to the Michigan city of riverview. Can't even get it on the superfind list because it would cost too much to clean up. Land just sits there polluted, vacant, and fenced in. The Corp won't touch it. Cancer rates unexplained.
I'll have to check that out
Wow! Me and my wife had our anniversary trip close to Princeton and decided to visit each local town around there. And we visited Depue! That was only a few weeks ago. It's just crazy to visit the town and then see a video about it.
Wonderful job Chris. I've been through here, and all up and down the canals in the area. I was unaware of the toxicity of this lake and I'm a big local history and local nature buff. I hope your video helps raise awareness.
My dad and grandad and great grandad lived there from the I'm guessing the 1910s-1950s.
The dry goods store you mentioned was theirs.
Joe Bender-Max Bender and my dad Sol.
Thanks!
Wow, thank you for the generous super chat!
There are slag piles all up and down this corridor along the Illinois River. Chris, you can build a lifetime career reporting on these companies in that region. It's tragic that such beautiful country can be so heavily polluted. I'd start focusing on the Midewin Tallgrass Preserve off Lorenzo Rd on I-55. It looks like Mordor at night through that area.
Chris, I follow your channel and I’m in Louisiana. I just got back from working in Illinois and stayed in Peoria for 2 months. I covered service calls along the Illinois and Des Plaines River and was dispatched up there in Peru 3 weeks ago. I appreciate the info.
I visited DePue a lot in the 80s. Other towns like Kewanee and Savana have a sad feeling because of industrial decline.
It’s Savanna and it’s in Carroll County , Illinois the county that only had one Democratic candidate on our ballot and it was Harris. Guess we’re smarter than rest of Illinois. Our migrants are legal, we don’t do DEI but do personal responsibility. Proud to be from a county who judges people individually for their action versus group mentality. Leave that type of thinking to shitty cities. Proud of our employers in area which help to support our volunteer fire departments. 1 stop light in entire county and that’s for idiot tourists who don’t know how to drive.
So basically a smaller version of Picher Oklahoma
Exactly!
Similar
Yep 👍
If your in the area 10miles east in Lasalle has a superfund site too, all the towns in the area are superfunds cause of all the mines just look for little mountains in the area
Coming to a town near you.foveenebt have plans for 49 states to be mined. They keep saying we have to have LITHIUM for car batteries QUARTZ for chips and phon
Wow another small town left to die by the state of Illinois. I wouldn't trust the state at all about the water testing..I would have moved out years ago and never looked back. For working the site for clean up this is taking way way too long and it looks like Illinois doesn't have the money to fix the problem. There latest financial reports seem to show the state is broke and it's going to get worse before it ever gets better. Great job on the video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
EPA in Illinois that's like EPA in Mexico that's funny as hell😊
I live about 30ish miles away in streator and has no idea of this. We have an old fertilizer plant property that still has a giant pile of gypsum, right next to where our water comes. Look at it on a satellite view and you'll be able to see where it is in a heartbeat.
The US EPA is in charge of superfund sites not IEPA. Congress gave the authority to the EPA in 1980 through the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act or CERCLA. Congress needs to allocate more funds to help clean up all of these sites.
Google maps hasnt even chosen to street view the town....sad.
That’s why I’m here
I've been to DePue a few times when photographing trains on the Iowa Interstate Railroad. I remember a billboard by the slag pile that said something like "CBS/Viacom Clean Up Your Mess". Crazy that the area that is supposed cleaned up now has solar panels which will eventually leak more toxic chemicals. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is a joke. Coal mines have retention ponds that are supposed to be cleaned up when the mine is closed, but they've let a lot of them in place. They're also letting a coal mining company in Southern Illinois pump huge volumes of high sulfate water into the Big Muddy River.
i lived here my whole life, and yes i never heard of this town, very interesting history.
I heard about DePue Lake but never went there, though. Also I heard that DePue Lake is toxic, so I knew it was true
CBS Corporation, now named Paramount Global, came to own part of the mine after inheriting it from its time as Viacom; in 1995, Viacom bought Paramount Communications, which was formerly named Gulf+Western, which bought the Paramount movie studio and New Jersey Zinc in 1966.
First time I've seen a logical explanation for CBS' role in the whole deal. Tried looking it up based on the info you just gave and I still can't find anything that confirms it.
Interesting how the Pritzker administration ignores this
Just a random comment....what was the music at like 3:00? I really dug it.
I agree. It really fits the mood and theme of the video
My guess is that the companies operating at these sites were likely in compliance with the laws that were on the books at that time. If so, it would not be likely or even fair to hold them responsible for prior lawful actions just because a need was seen for putting a more stringent law in place once the problem was recognized. I'm sure when the plants were running, most of the people's main concerns probably centered around the good jobs they had. The exposed slag piles need to have an impermeable plastic barrier put over them along with a layer of dense clay. This will prevent contaminated run off. There is no way you can prevent these ox-bow lakes from filling in. Essentially all ox-bow lakes fill in and become farm fields eventually. Your algae problem revolves around having shallow, warm water bodies that are revved up with some of the phosphates still hanging around from the fertilizer plant that had operated here. My advice would be to do what you can to prevent runoff, level the site as much as possible, and work with a major utility to cover the whole site with solar panels with the caveat that everyone living in the affected area receive free electricity for as long as the solar site is in operation. If you think the state of Illinois is going to put any money into cleaning up the mess you are living in dream land. The democrats running the state have committed all the taxpayers' money to buying municipal employee unions votes by supplying them with lucrative insurance and pension benefits, resulting in the state being roughly 200 billion in the hole. Fat ass Pritzker will never come and see your problem. He's too busy sitting in Chicago eating donuts.
It would be great to see you do videos of the Dallas suburbs, and North Texas towns.
I went to high school between Spring Valley and Peru, and remember going to Depue for a basketball game. It was a strange feeling to look out the bus window at a glowing pile of what looked like gravel off to the side of the road. This was late 60's, large factory was still there, didn't have any idea of what was produced there. There were many slag piles on the area from old mines. We climbed some of them (Spring Valley, Dalzell) and saw many others in the area. It is depressing to return to the LAsalle-Peru area and see the decline over the years. The federal and state governments have abandoned any attempt to hold corporations responsible for the messes they create, and its going to get a lot worse with the incoming administration promising to remove regulations when the regulations were already totally inadequate.
The current administration also did nothing to make it better and it ignored the majority of the demographic that lives in theese river valley areas and across the country who came out in bigger numbers to vote this time. Instead they focused on gender identity, abortion, Hispanic/Black/Female voters.
I'm not saying the upcoming administration will fix anything either. I just refuse to let you try and blame a decades old problem on an administration that didnt exist when the administration you clearly prefer did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING with their term.
Love your videos! Do you have a work history in Phase I ESAs? Definitely get that vibe with the aerial, topo, and fire insurance map use lol
Thanks! And no, just crap minimum wage jobs in college, radio and this lol
In fact, in our opinion, Illinois is one of the most beautiful in terms of vistas. Have you been to the west side - the driftless region? Scales Mound? Galena? Ever driven through the small town of Mt. Carroll? Visited Lake Summerset ever? Oh and the views in Chicago are phenomenal. There is great beauty to behold in waving fields of tall corn and wheat in the summertime.
Oh yeah Chicago looks beautiful... from a distance. Drive through downtown and the surrounding areas and all you see is trash and badly repaired streets. It's 3rd world.
Hey Chris, big fan of your videos. I want to ask if its ok if I use a few minutes, maybe 5 or so, of your video on Harvey Illinois. Im gona do a video about their corrupt mayor soon.
How much is the USA sending to Ukraine and Gaza ? They wouldn't miss a billion or so
Well those Palestinians aren't gonna genocide themselves.
Hey, Casey's pizza is pretty good! Fuels me up while I'm out and about 😂
one of the big reasons production in this country moved offshore
Property taxes amongst others is sky high in crooked Illinois. Controlled by 5 democrat counties the rest of the state is held hostage. The state has plenty of money but it just disappears..........
Where are the Republicans? Where is their plan to reduce property taxes? They don't have one. They're no better than the Democrats.
Move to Texas or Florida. There's plenty more of your people living there!
Land can't vote.
Land can't vote.
Land can't vote. 😅
Chris needs to take over the cleanup. He sounds like he has it all figured out.
Find me $100 million and I’ll make it happen. It’ll make for a pretty good 2nd video too
You must be one of the Exxon shareholders 😂, I stay in Illinois and never heard of this community before TH-cam algorithm!
What do you propose? Dig a hole to put it in. I’m sure that would help.
Not to be that guy but half of my city is a superfund site and it would take a trillion dollars to truly clean up. So it won;t ever be.
Beckemeyer Illinois was a superfund site too. It was reclaimed in the 90s
There's gotta be no fish in that lake.
Interesting video…
What equipment are you using to capture your gps data (time, date, weather, street) as seen at 2:26 and other areas in the video?
Democrat Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is working hard on the issue . . . Not
Dickless Durbin.
Its a small poor town in a poor county in a state where only one massively corrupt metropolitan area matters. There's no hope for Depue.
That's what it seems like unfortunately
Some company made a crapload of money and then left a huge mess for us to clean up with our tax dollars
South in Illinois, where I live, the water is also tainted. Excess nitrates from fertilizers and chemicals from pesticides and herbicides used in the pre-1990's.
This happens everywhere in Illinois. I know of several oil well leaks and abandoned open oil wells. Farmers are just as bad. We used to catch fish in all the small creeks but those days are long since gone. Sad!
What the hell. Drege the lake. And if toxic metals pour into the Illinois River so what. Maybe it will kill the damn Asian carp.
Very unfortunate for this community since they are on their own with no State support. Very sad story and at the very minimum the village should be receiving all the solar farm revenues as partial payment from the company.
What does the phrase "cleaned up" mean. Is "cleaned down" its antonym.
They care less about anyplace other than adding funds to their pockets. Top soil added to things never fixes its a bandage to cover but never does anything
I ran a Schwan's home delivery route there a few years ago I always wondered what that residue I saw on the hills was .every one I serviced there was very nice . Terrible that they were treated that way.
Billionaire Governor JaBa Pritzker can't be bothered with any of this. He's too busy trying to turn Illinois...or at least the Metro Area...into a Quantum research Hub.
We've got something like that in Creve Coeur mo. Creve Coeur lake had poison dumped in it, swimming and fishing is out of the question.
The St. Louis area is like the Midwest capital for superfund sites
Could you do a video on East Alton/Wood River Illinois? A lot of pollution there too.
Went there 4 years ago and made some videos. Not sure if I'll go back or not
makes me wonder how many old strip mine lakes have toxins
Isn't it amazing... .God forbid if your car has the Engine light on.....but De-Pue toxic Lake and clean up site are in compliance with the State of Illinois EPA regulations. Good job Democrats!👍
It seems the solar scam is the new go-to answer for contaminated sites. I just read about a similar plan in Pittsburg's Swisshelm Park, an old slag dumping site that was planned to be remediated by a housing developer but now will be a solar farm instead.
How about LOVE CANAL?
I want to go there
The Illinois EPA doesn't care at all. Ask anyone living in superfund sights all along the Illinois River. Actually you should do a video on Lasalle and their problems with Carus Chemical dragging their feet on their damage from a explosion last January 11th. 2023. The citizens could use some help getting their story told. I'd contact Jamie Hicks. He's not shutting up. He's a good man.
EPA is only allowed to test for things on the list that they are allowed to test for. Big companies pay EPA to keep their chemicals off that approved list,
Governor Pigster don’t care!!! If not in Cook County, doesn’t concern him!!!
Oh, he would. If plans for development after clean-up were for an all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant.
Lake DePue should identify as Lake Michigan
My sister lives in bradley by the sewer plant... She has had 4 dogs diagnosed and died from rare people cancers. Her and my niece suddenly have autoimmune disease. She has lived there over 40 yes. Dogs died last 4 yea.. and a few cats..all from cancer...diagoned autoimmune last 2 yrs....something not right
Very strange, what does the TV channel cbs have to do with all this?
Interesting! I was caught up in that flood in Oct '20 delivering a boat from chi to the gulf. Hunkered down in Ottowa for a few days to let the river level peak, then went right by here, I recall passing Peru. There is a lot of industry along the river you'd never know was there. The reality is, there's no way to clean up a town like this. Once you've disturbed buried formations of minerals through mining, the jig is up, the surface will remain contaminated forever. You can maybe cap it with clay or concrete, but it will still shed. There is no place to move contaminated soils to, who would take it? Really, abandonment is what happens. Stabilize it and leave. If the river wasn't there I suppose you could continue with a dirty industry since the damage is permanent already I guess. It's a pretty area and it's a shame, but that's the sins of the past and it's no surprise that we've out sourced materials to places like China.
Would have guessed Dalton
The town's residents need to hire an independent firm to represent them and do their own tests to ensure that the issue is actually fixed. ILEPA is a bad joke.
How many complained about the solar farm? My guess is everyone in town.
I would like to see an audit done on that site. You can bet it's a cash cow for someone.
The school proficiency scores caught my eye. How can students that perform so poorly in math (and reading) do so well (relatively) in science?
$$$ scammed in Illinois & government 🤬
the state is going to let it dry up, its the safest and most effective way to deal with the problem.
They do the same in LaSalle Peru. You should check into the release of toxins from Canurs in LaSalle in 2023
Trees growing on a pile of toxic waste? It's pretty lazy to over use the "toxic waste" term. You could talk about what is actually present. Toxic tends to mean things can't live. There is no doubt that there was likely valuable materials just left behind which end up being pollutants because of their concentration. Most corporate leaders have little vision and run away rather than leaving a legacy of responsibility. It's just icing on the cake that they get the tax payers to clean it up.