Leaking underground gas tanks affect potential projects at two sites
At the corner of Harlem and Harvard Avenues sits an empty lot where there used to be a gas station. Underground, the soil was contaminated by leaking tanks that once held the business’ gasoline. The property owner’s plans to build an apartment building there are stalled, partially because he’s awaiting final approval from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.
A second property in Forest Park, the old Moran’s Garage at Des Plaines Avenue and Randolph Street, will need similar remediation.
Following remediation efforts at the Harlem property last summer, the Village of Forest Park is on its way to entering into a Highway Authority Agreement with Combined Real Estate, LCC, which owns or operates at least one of the leaking underground storage tanks at 949 S. Harlem Ave.
At its Feb. 24 village council meeting, commissioners unanimously approved a resolution that authorizes a Highway Authority Agreement and Supplemental Highway Authority Agreement. The agreements are required by the IEPA in order to issue a letter to Combined Real Estate that no further remediation is necessary – something the village of Forest Park has to sign off on since the previous business’ leakage extends into its right-of-way.
The agreements also make Combined Real Estate responsible for any future costs regarding the storage tanks and contaminated soil, be it water main work or another large-scale project that requires digging up Harlem or Harvard.
“If, in the future, the roadway has to be dug up,” Village Administrator Rachell Entler told the Review, “the property owner is still responsible for the cost associated with cleaning it up.”
While gas has leaked underneath the village’s right-of-way, there’s no contamination threat to the public, she said.
“Roadways aren’t porous because of the asphalt,” Entler said. “That contamination isn’t going to seep up. People aren’t going to be walking on dirt that has contamination.”
According to the approved resolution from the last village council meeting in February, one or more of the underground storage tanks at 949 S. Harlem Ave. have released contaminants that exceed Tier 1 residential remediation objections, or a certain contaminant concentration, according to state statute.
“CRE and the village desire to prevent groundwater beneath the village’s right-of-way that exceeds Tier 1 remediation objections from use as a supply of potable or domestic water, and to limit access to soil within the right-of-way that exceeds Tier 1 residential remediation objections so that human health and the environment are protected during and after any access,” the resolution said.
Getting a no further remediation letter from the IEPA is just the first step for the property owner, who wants to put apartments at 949 S. Harlem. But Steve Glinke, director of public health and safety, said the owner can’t move ahead until the village council approves zoning code changes.
Remediation efforts are also needed at the corner of Des Plaines Avenue and Randolph Street, where Moran’s Garage used to sit.
Though someone bought the property in a scavenger’s sale in 2023 to turn it into a muffler shop, Glinke said that’s not a permitted use for the property. And he hasn’t heard from the buyer in over a year.
The small amounts of ground contamination at 7505 Randolph St. will likely affect the property if it’s resold, Glinke said. And the property will need site remediation before the site owner builds on it.
