EPA Removes Portion of Beloit Superfund Site in Rockton, Illinois, From National Priorities List

CHICAGO, Illinois, Dec. 7 -- The Environmental Protection Agency issued the following news release:

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has removed a 20-acre area of the Beloit Corp. Superfund site in Rockton, Ill., from the National Priorities List, or NPL. Cleanup has been completed at the research center portion of this former machine manufacturing site at 1155 Prairie Hill Rd. U.S. EPA will require ongoing maintenance and monitoring at the deleted portion. Since October 2017, U.S. EPA has deleted 18 sites and partially deleted four sites from the NPL.

"U.S. EPA is making good on its commitment to pick up the pace of Superfund cleanups so the sites can be restored to productive use," said EPA Regional Administrator Cathy Stepp. "Promoting redevelopment is part of U.S. EPA's core mission and helps spur the local economy in communities near Superfund sites."

From 1957 until 1999, Beloit Corp. manufactured papermaking equipment and operated a research center on the property. The manufacturing activities contaminated soil and area groundwater. In 1990, U.S. EPA placed the site on the NPL, a list of the most contaminated sites in the nation. Beloit Corp. installed a groundwater pump-and-treat system in the manufacturing area of the site in 1996. Illinois EPA has been operating the treatment system since 2002. In 2008, U.S. EPA and IEPA expanded the groundwater pump-and treat-system.

On the research center portion of the site, U.S. EPA and IEPA also implemented land-use controls to prohibit any future residential use or new water wells. That parcel has since been redeveloped and is now used by a paper equipment manufacturer. U.S. EPA is partially deleting the former research center portion of the site because all cleanup actions at that location are complete.

Under the Trump Administration, the Superfund program has reemerged as a priority to fulfill and strengthen U.S. EPA's core mission of protecting human health and the environment.

U.S. EPA removes sites or portions of sites from the NPL once all the cleanup actions are successfully implemented and no further work is required to protect human health or the environment.

U.S. EPA proposed the partial deletion on July 16, 2018, and held two 30-day comment periods. The agency's response to comments and the final rule to delete the site can be found in docket: EPA-HQ-SFUND-1900-0011, accessed through https://regulations.gov.