Duckworth prompts feds to test Sauget
Agency that detected Willowbrook cancer cluster to monitor Veolia incinerator
Sen. Tammy Duckworth has received assurances that a federal agency will test the air outside the Veolia North America Trade Waste Incineration facility in Sauget near East St. Louis. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth has received pledges from a federal agency to monitor the health effects near a downstate trash incinerator that had pollution testing reduced earlier this year in an order by the Trump administration.
Duckworth announced in a news release that the Centers for Disease Control “will conduct a preliminary investigation into potential health hazards in Sauget, Ill., emanating from pollution near the Veolia North America Trade Waste Incineration facility.” Tests will be conducted by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, “the premier federal agency charged with protecting communities from public health threats related to exposure of natural and man-made hazardous substances.” The ATSDR detected an increased cancer risk in the area around the Sterigenics facility in Willowbrook in a report released just over a year ago. That led eventually to Sterigenics being shut down earlier this year and the plant announcing this fall that it would not reopen.
According to Duckworth’s office, the federal agency will conduct a “preliminary investigation to help determine if the Sauget incinerator is posing a public health risk specifically related to metal poisoning.”
The Better Government Association released a report earlier this month finding that, under President Trump, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had cut staff and investigations across the nation and especially in the Great Lakes area under its Region 5. It specifically cited the Veolia incinerator, which was slated in the final months of the Obama administration to be tested for emissions of arsenic, lead, mercury, and other harmful metals. But, according to the BGA, “the Trump EPA issued a ‘final revised’ permit in June this year that eliminated the previously mandated monitoring guidelines for the plant.”
“The people of Sauget deserve a full investigation into the potential health concerns stemming from the weakening of pollution controls at a local waste facility, and I’m encouraged by the announcement of a federal review of this very serious problem,” Duckworth said in a statement. “I’ll continue working to get to the bottom of it, and I’m pleased the federal government will engage with Illinois EPA and the Illinois Department of Health to gather and review data.”
Duckworth also raised the matter during a Senate hearing in October with Sean O’Donnell, nominated to be the EPA’s inspector general.
According to her office, after ATSDR collects and analyzes the data, the agency will notify Duckworth “whether a full assessment of the public health risks posed by the Veolia North America Trade Waste Incineration facility is feasible, or if ATSDR recommends additional data collection.”
Duckworth joined in April in founding the Senate Environmental Justice Caucus “to raise awareness of the many environmental and pollution issues that have created public health challenges, which disproportionately impact low-income communities and communities of color, including lead and metal poisoning.”