By Joe Ragusa
BLOOMINGTON – An agreement the Bloomington City Council approved Monday night would help the city recoup costs associated with groundwater contamination around the intersection of Linden and Emerson Streets.
The reimbursement agreement was added to the ordinance that bans the use of groundwater near Freedom Oil by Alderwoman Amelia Buragas a few hours before the meeting.
“If we ever do any work in the area where we’re digging up soil and we need to dispose of it or we need to treat it in any way or we need to take additional safety precautions to make sure that our workers aren’t exposed to the (contaminated) groundwater that’s down there, then we can recoup those costs,” Buragas said.
Fuel storage tanks underneath Freedom Oil would occasionally overflow in the 1980’s, causing contamination to the nearby soil and groundwater. Environmental consultant Penny Silzer said the plume of contamination has stopped growing.
The actual contamination area can be seen here, courtesy the city of Bloomington. The area impacted by the groundwater ban can be seen here.
It’s not a serious problem since the contamination is relatively minor and the city already bans the use of wells to access groundwater. It’s also not a unique problem, since there are 12 other groundwater bans in the city, including four enacted within the last five years. There are hundreds across the state.
City Attorney Jeff Jurgens said he’s confident Freedom Oil will accept the reimbursement agreement.
“We’re going to have to fine-tune the agreement and determine all the exact language,” Jurgens said. “Typically, it’s just with the current owner of the property but there may be ways we look at recording it against the property and make it applicable to future owners.”
Jurgens said he expects the deal to be finalized later this week and it will be public information.
Joe Ragusa can be reached at joe.ragusa@cumulus.com.
