Source: http://www.sj-r.com, October 30, 2017
By: Tim Landis
The nine-month, $1.8 million cleanup at the former Pillsbury Mills plant in Springfield — including tons of asbestos-contaminated debris — should be completed this week with removal of barrels containing waste oil and other chemicals.
Federal and state court cases, meanwhile, are pending against the site owners.
“We’re getting rid of the final containers of used oil and various containers of other materials stockpiled on the site,” Kevin Turner, site cleanup coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Monday.
Turner said crews are scheduled to complete the removal Wednesday. Since the cleanup began in February, crews in hazardous-material suits have removed 2,200 tons of asbestos-contaminated debris, 1,160 cubic yards of bulk asbestos and approximately 3,700 mercury-contaminated light bulbs. The asbestos, primarily from boiler and pipe insulation, has been taken to landfills.
Other toxic chemicals have been taken to special processing facilities. Crews had to work through more than two-dozen buildings at the site, which has been vacant since the mill shut down in 2001.
Turner said the site has returned to the jurisdiction of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Attorney General’s Office. The attorney’s general’s office filed a civil suit in Sangamon County Circuit Court in August 2015 accusing site owner P. Mills LLC of improper asbestos cleanup at the site. The federal EPA stepped in after owners failed to comply with court orders for a proper cleanup.
Circuit Judge John Madonia earlier this month reinstated an injunction ordering P. Mills partners to work with the state EPA on securing the site, according to court records. A status hearing is scheduled for Jan. 22.
One of the partners in the P. Mills, Joseph Chernis IV, is scheduled for sentencing Dec. 11 on federal charges of improper asbestos cleanup and making false statements about the cleanup in the state civil case.
Pillsbury Mills Neighborhood Association president John Keller said he hopes security will be maintained now that federal EPA crews are moving on. Trespassing and illegal salvage operations were persistent complaints prior to the start of the cleanup.

“It’s been pretty quiet, though you always have neighborhood kids trying to get in there,” said Keller.
Hazardous waste and court cases have made it difficult to draw interest to the Pillsbury site, said Keller, though reuse of the site is among major long-term goals for the city of Springfield.