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June 10, 2009
TRIBUNE WATCHDOG
Madigan: Crestwood lied about tainted well
State alleges in lawsuit that village officials misled EPA, residents about source of water
When the state ordered Crestwood officials nine years ago to test their community well for toxic chemicals, they said it wasn't necessary because all of the village's drinking water came from Lake Michigan.
"This sampling would not apply to our facility," Frank Scaccia, the village's certified water operator, wrote in an April 2000 letter to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
Citing Scaccia's letter and other documents, Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan filed a civil lawsuit Tuesday that accuses Crestwood officials of lying more than 120 times about their secret use of a community well contaminated with cancer-causing chemicals. The suit outlines a systematic coverup of Crestwood's routine use of its tainted well and provides more details about actions first publicly revealed by the Tribune in April.
The village continued to draw water from the well even though the EPA had told them in 1986 that it was contaminated with a chemical related to a highly toxic dry-cleaning solvent. By telling the state that residents were getting only Lake Michigan water, Crestwood officials avoided scrutiny and fended off authorities for more than two decades. The well finally was shut down in late 2007.
Already facing a federal criminal investigation, Mayor Robert Stranczek; his father, Chester, the former mayor; and Scaccia could face millions of dollars in fines if a Cook County Circuit Court agrees with the allegations outlined in Madigan's lawsuit.
"Crestwood officials violated the public's trust and the laws designed to protect public health," Madigan said in a statement. "Through this lawsuit, we are seeking to hold these officials accountable for their conduct and to make sure that this does not happen again in Illinois."
For more than two decades, the Stranczeks and Scaccia signed reports telling residents and state regulators that Crestwood relied exclusively on Lake Michigan water treated by Chicago and purchased from neighboring Alsip. But records show they kept using the polluted well, apparently to save money.
Chester Stranczek in particular boasted that he ran Crestwood like a business. He attracted national recognition for pinching pennies, rebating property taxes and maintaining the lowest water rates in Cook County. Using the well, located under the village water tower off 127th Street, enabled officials to cut back on their purchases of lake water and freed them from expensive testing of the well.
In late 2007, when EPA inspectors tested the water for the first time since 1986, they found the well was contaminated with dichloroethylene and vinyl chloride, which is so toxic the U.S. EPA says there is no safe level of exposure.
Among other things, the lawsuit cites 105 monthly reports signed by Scaccia and sent to the Illinois EPA stating the well was on "standby" status and no water had been pumped from it.
Chester and Robert Stranczek also signed annual "consumer confidence reports" required under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Each report, as well as notices they published in a local newsletter, claimed that all of the village's drinking water came from Lake Michigan.
Not until August 2008 did Scaccia acknowledge that he and other village officials had been using the well for years, the lawsuit stated. EPA inspectors questioned him after discovering the well water could be pumped, untreated, into the village's distribution system.
Nine days after the Tribune's investigation was published, Robert Stranczek and his lawyer gave Madigan's office a chart confirming the newspaper's account of how much water the village had drawn from the well. The monthly amount ranged from about 3 percent to as high as 20 percent of Crestwood's total water supply.
In an April 24 interview with the Tribune, Stranczek acknowledged he has known about the use of the well since at least 1997, when he became a village trustee. He was appointed mayor in 2007 when his father retired.
Efforts to reach the Stranczeks and Scaccia for comment about the lawsuit were not successful, but in a statement, the village said Crestwood's drinking water always was safe to drink. "The village has been closely cooperating with the Illinois EPA in its investigation, and it will continue to do so," it said.
Records show Crestwood officials knew the well was contaminated at least as early as 1986. They also heard about the pollution in 1998, when village officials were on hand as contractors tested the well and found dichloroethylene in the water.
The contractors were investigating pollution from a dry cleaner less than 300 feet from the well, stated a letter found in state files. Perchloroethylene, a dry-cleaning solvent dumped years ago behind the business, breaks down into dichloroethylene and vinyl chloride.
The EPA was informed of the contamination, but it took nearly another decade for the agency to follow up. Meanwhile, village officials evaded several orders from another branch of the state agency to test the well for chemical contaminants, including the 2000 order to which Scaccia responded.
Madigan's lawsuit is the latest public action to follow the Tribune's investigation. Federal agents raided Crestwood government offices in late April as part of a criminal probe, andGov. Pat Quinn ordered more stringent reporting requirements for all local water utilities.
State lawmakers also approved legislation brokered by Quinn and Madigan to ensure citizens are informed when their drinking water is contaminated. On Monday, the EPA began testing soil and groundwater near the well in an attempt to determine how much pollution residents consumed.
Under pressure from U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, an arm of theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating.
mhawthorne@tribune.com