Comments before the Barrie Park Clean-up Advisory Committee
Wednesday, October 6, 1999
Robert J. Baren
Co-Chairman, The Barrie Residents Against Toxins

I would like to express my deep gratitude to the members of this committee.  
You have spent an enormous amount of time working towards goals that will come 
from testimony at this evening's meeting.  This committee has listened to and 
advocated for, residents. It has been appreciated.

Almost a year ago this process began.  What I believed to be a pristine park 
turned out to be far less.  All of my neighbors found out that we faced an 
environmental crisis that no one ever considered possible.

Toxic carcinogenic materials polluted our park.

As I have watched the events of the past year unfold, I have been struck by how 
utterly unfair this situation really is.  Few have even spoken on the subject.  
When my family moved to Oak Park it was for a better life, a solid investment, 
and a general feeling of safety.  This situation has damaged that all.  It has 
also damaged my faith.  My faith that what I see out of my front window, a 
beautiful green park and a place for children to play, is free from 
contamination.  I was wrong.  Instead, anyone of us who used that park and 
lived in this neighborhood is at risk.  Every study, every test, and every 
assurance will never dissuade my fear that fourteen years growing up in the 
Barrie Park neighborhood may have irreparably affected my health. I've already 
been exposed, as have most of neighbors.

There is nothing I can do to change my situation, but there is something I can 
do to help those in succeeding generations.  There is a proverb that reads "We 
do not own the land, we borrow it from our children." I am determined that the 
next generation, and succeeding generations, will not have a situation such as 
this thrust upon them.  It is with that spirit of stewardship that I request 
this committee recommend a total remediation of Barrie Park.  I can do no less.

To allow a party responsible for environmental contamination to leave such 
materials in the ground is appalling.  I have heard repeatedly to "be 
reasonable."  Why?  Are we worried that the burden on Commonwealth Edison and 
Nicor Gas is so great that we will be bankrupting them by demanding they clean 
our neighborhood?  I think not.  Is it that the emotional and physical 
inconvenience of a remediation is so great that it benefits residents to leave 
contaminated material in the ground?  I have news for you.  These neighbors 
have been through hell.  It's going to get worse, but there is a payoff at the 
end.  Something that, until we found out about this toxic contamination, I 
thought this neighborhood had - - peace of mind.

It is equally appalling that, after months of scientific research, the extent 
of remediation will be decided by speeches and by negotiation.  Even the 
attendance this evening will be considered in just how clean Commonwealth 
Edison and Nicor Gas makes my neighborhood.  That is wrong.  I submit to you 
that "clean is clean."  If this is about a negotiation, then we have failed 
those who put our trust in everyone in this room.  We have failed our 
children.  It is our obligation as adults to assure them that they are provided 
with the safest possible place to play. As long as there is contaminated soil 
in the ground, I cannot make that assurance.

In addition, we have been asked to trust those who have thrust this 
contamination upon us.  Some in this room have looked on in disbelief as my 
fellow neighbors and I questioned the honesty of Commonwealth Edison.  From the 
start of this process, Commonwealth Edison provided to neighbors a basic 
overview of the situation, and left a thought that if contamination were 
present, it would be minimal.  Even as this situation unfolded, Commonwealth 
Edison assured neighbors that contamination would not likely be present in 
surface soils.  They were wrong.  When a party responsible for toxic 
contamination is trusted with testing for, and remediation of those materials, 
their processes must be beyond reproach.  That has hardly been the case here.

The reality is that Commonwealth Edison has misled, delayed and changed how 
this process worked.  Without a strong push from area neighbors, much of the 
contamination may not even be known. I must remind this committee that the 
testing of parkways was at the demand of Barrie Park neighbors. Those parkways 
now appear to be contaminated. The very existence of this committee was at the 
demand of neighbors.  Yet, I still believe there are many in this room that 
trust the fox to guard the hen house.  

We've seen it.  We've seen changes, adjustments, eleventh hour corrections.  
There is information out there originally promised in March that remains in 
question.  Perhaps the most important testing, parkways in front residences, 
was botched.  It is those types of errors that erode trust in the party 
providing information.  Whether or not Commonwealth Edison has lied is not in 
question.  Merely, the appearance that they have is enough for me to feel it 
prudent to demand that the responsible party perform the maximum remediation.

I have also heard assurances, that were further remediation needed, 
Commonwealth Edison would provide it.  I cannot guarantee at what point further 
remediation would be needed.  No one in this room can predict the future use 
needs of Barrie Park. This material is geologic in origin. This material will 
be in the ground for hundreds, if not thousands of years. I am skeptical, based 
on their present situation, that Commonwealth Edison will exist in ten years, 
yet alone fifty.  This is a company under siege for errors that have nothing to 
do with this contamination.  If Commonwealth Edison is here -- now-- to perform 
the remediation, they must perform the maximum remediation.  It is the only way 
to assure future users of this park of its safety.

We have not even touched on the issue of offsite dumping.  This plant generated 
a significant amount of wasted.  Not just coal tar, but tar-water emulsion and 
filter box wastes.  All of which had to be removed from the site for dumping.  
Much of this area was open land during the operation of this plant.  Any open 
land could have been used as a dumping ground for toxic materials.  
Commonwealth Edison's testing contractor, GEI Consultants has done exhaustive 
research to show the ownership of the land.  That is helpful, but if the land 
is open there is no stopping the dumping of materials.  Any property that has a 
structure built after 1893 is at risk.  It should not be the duty of residents 
to prove that offsite dumping did occur, but instead it should be the 
responsibility of Commonwealth Edison to prove that dumping did not occur.  I 
have heard no such assurances.  The possibility does exist that contaminated 
materials may have been dumped throughout this area.  I also encourage this 
committee to examine the issue of offsite dumping further.  

I have been honored to chair a citizens committee that has placed exhaustive 
research and education above emotion.  This evening must be about emotion as 
well.  I must speak for a twelve-year-old boy who played in a park he thought 
was safe--free from environmental contamination.  Thirteen years later that boy 
found out he was wrong.  That boy is now a man and I am that man.  I say, "If 
not us, who?  If not now, when?"  If we are to be good stewards of the future, 
we must start now.  I implore this committee to recommend the safe removal of 
all contaminated materials from the Barrie Park neighborhood. 

Robert J. Baren

We will be adding more information here in the days that come.  I would like to
add that Oak Park's Park Department under the leadership of Mr. John Hedges has hired an attorney in this case and that this person(s) shall work with Commonwealth Edison and NICOR Gas to have them greatly expand their clean up duties beyond the minimal requirement of three feet.  The Village too shall be cooperating with the Parks Departments to see to it that our town is getting the best it can get.  All of the reports that I have read show that the human impact should be minimal if not non existent.  We will include
here all of the available data that we can get our hands on and there is a lot.  We will
be adding info as we get it.  I spoke with the woman the other day who signed our  report,
a Gail Dodfrey (Technical Project Officer, for the Division of Health Assessment and Consultation-United States Department of Human Services).  I was later informed that some of the information I was looking for would not be available on the WEB for another year.
I have hard copies of the current reports and will have most of them posted here soon.

The Conclusion to the report reads as follows: 
(from IDPH..Illinois Department of Public Health)

" Based on the limited Phase I and Phase II data reviewed, IDPH concludes that no
apparent public health hazard exists from exposure to surface soil at Barrie Park.  More surface samples should be collected from the park and adjacent areas to better characterize the site."