RANTOUL — The project manager for a company in charge of cleanup efforts at the former Chanute Air Force Base (Illinois) said environmental concerns about Agent Orange and other agents are unfounded.
One by one, Howard Sparrow, project manager for CB&I Inc., Greenville, S.C., addressed areas of concern about public drinking water supply, private wells, Agent Orange and low levels of dioxins.
Water quality issue. Speaking at last Thursday’s Chanute Restoration Advisory Board meeting, Sparrow addressed a comment that indicated in 2008, the federal government warned the village of Rantoul and Chanute Air Force Base that they should notify all children, elderly and infants with health problems that the water had contaminants and that they should not drink the water.
“The Air Force’s response to that is that is not a true statement,” Sparrow said. “The village of Rantoul drinking water supply is perfectly safe for the public to drink.”
Sparrow said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in 2008 reviewed available information for the village, which now operates five of the former Chanute wells and found no contaminants “detected at levels of concern.”
The only notable item found as a result of testing was sodium, a naturally occurring mineral that might be a concern for people with high blood pressure.
Pete Passarelli, village of Rantoul assistant public works director, said at the November RAB meeting that the community’s water supply is “rigorously tested monthly through a certified lab, and it meets all of the U.S. EPA-required levels.”
READ MORE: http://www.rantoulpress.com/news/environment/2014-05-20/air-force-says-no-agent-orange-used-base.html
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