West Parking Lot Soil Contaminated with Gasoline

Village officials met with an environmental consultant on June 2 and confirmed that some soil has been contaminated with gasoline in the West Parking Lot.

The contamination was unearthed during work to bury utility lines in the lot behind the rear of businesses on North Milwaukee Avenue and behind the Village Hall.

“It wasn’t high level at all and will be disposed of as special waste,” Public Works Director John Heinz said.

Village officials do not have a cost estimate of how much it would take to dispose of the contaminated soil as special waste. Overall the additional costs "will be minor in the grand scheme of cost," Heinz said. "But we don't like to spend any more dollars than we absolutely have to."

The soil contamination has delayed work in the West Parking lot for several weeks. While construction is expected to restart this week, it will most likely not be completed before Libertyville Days.

"They are working on the utility work now and they have a ways to go to complete that. They haven't been out there in several weeks because of the soil contamination," Heinz said. "I don't anticipate that they will get the utility work done before Libertyville Days."

The source of the soil contamination remains a mystery, but Heinz speculates “it is soil that was used for backfill many years ago and was buried with the contamination in it. We have not found any tanks in the area.”

Heinz says crews may find more soil contamination near the original area but “we are prepared to deal with it as we need to," he said.