BP has spent well over $100 million on clean-up efforts at the former refinery in Wood River.
Over the last couple of years, environmental crews have been engaged in dozens of activities throughout the former Amoco site, ranging from a site-wide pipeline investigation to soil sampling to the maintenance and optimization of cleanup systems.
Crews are continuing to investigate the main plant site, identifying and uncovering underground pipes from when Amoco operated a major refinery here. Workers find the pipes, carefully uncover them, and then either remove them if they are damaged or clean and cap them if they are still in good condition.
This nearly 800-acre site is broken down into smaller land parcels, many of which the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has determined require no further action to clean up soils. These parcels have been cleared for redevelopment. Other land parcels are being investigated or cleaned.
Tunnicliff said, “The pipeline initiative is one of the largest hurdles we must clear before a number of parcels on our site can be redeveloped. Once we complete this work and conduct our final investigations, we anticipate that Illinois EPA will determine that a number of additional land parcels will need no further action to clean up soils, thus making them available for redevelopment.”
Other crews periodically perform maintenance and optimization of existing cleanup systems at the site. Tunnicliff said, “Our site has many existing cleanup technologies, and it is critical that we perform regular maintenance and testing of them to make certain they perform at optimum levels.”
