I wanted to provide you an important update on the federal agency report alerting our village to a public health hazard in our community. The alert was regarding ethylene oxide (EtO) gas emitting from the Sterigenics company here in Willowbrook.
Today we spent the entire day in communication with leaders from our county, state and federal governments trying to gather more information. Early this morning I talked with Illinois Representative Jim Durkin and Illinois State Senator John Curran that led to a series of calls with Illinois EPA Director Alec Messina. He shared with me the following statement.
“Sterigenics submitted a construction permit application to the Illinois EPA to construct equipment that will reduce emissions on June 11, 2018. After review from the USEPA and IEPA, IEPA issued the permit on June 26, 2018. We believe that the controls should result in reductions of EtO. The project was completed on July 27, 2018 and follow-up stack tests to confirm emission levels are scheduled imminently. We will continue to work closely with USEPA and the City of Willowbrook to monitor this situation.”
We also retained one of the state’s leading experts on environmental law and spoke to the DuPage County Health Department numerous times. They did everything they could to facilitate informative discussions with various key agencies including the United States Department Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry (ATSDR)-the agency that issued the report.
My main goal in talking to the two federal agencies was to try and get an assessment on the health and safety of our residents and village employees. I have requested representatives from both agencies to come to Willowbrook to speak with residents and answer our questions. We are scheduling a meeting for early next week. We will update you with the date and time.
Please continue to check our website, my Facebook page and the Willowbrook Police Department Facebook page for udpates.
Sincerely,
Mayor Frank Trilla