EPA to Conduct Further Testing in Illinois Beach State Park

The EPA will conduct a new round of testing at Illinois Beach State Park to determine if normal beach activities are releasing asbestos fibers into the air.

The concerns about asbestos originate from 1997 when construction materials containing asbestos were found strewn across the beach. A year later a report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) found that the contamination could have come from a variety of sources around the site and that the materials did not contain enough asbestos to pose any significant health risks.

However material has continued to wash up on the park’s shores and recent tests have shown small amounts of asbestos fibers in the air. The results have encouraged the EPA to perform a new series of tests to determine just how much asbestos is released by regular park activities and if those levels pose a health risk.

Some of the sources for contamination include:

An EPA Superfund site located at a former Johns Manville factory that produced asbestos containing materials
Material from the lake that was dredged to curb erosion along the north shore may be contaminated with asbestos
Illegal dumping

Next month the park will be shutdown for a number of days while the EPA conducts further testing.

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