The Illinois EPA held a meeting on Tuesday evening regarding the Ameren/CIPS Taylorville  MGP site to discuss and inquire about the five-year update and the current plans for the project moving forward. Through many timelines, testing information, and questions, the Illinois EPA confirms that they have not detected contaminants above the EPA standards, moving into the air, soil, and water surrounding the site and into the community. 

In attendance to answer questions were Brad Frost, Community Relations Manager for the IEPA, and his team, along with Greggory Miller, Environmental Protection Specialist for the IEPA and Project Manager.

A presentation was given by Miller to review the five-year update of the site. Recent sampling events at the site for the water, air, and soil have returned to the IEPA showing levels that comply with the EPA standards. On the site of contamination, benzene had shown levels that were above the EPA limit, but the pump and treatment system will continue to treat the specific wells.

Air monitoring was focused on heavily as Miller said this was one aspect the community was concerned about most. It was confirmed that air monitoring systems have been running since the project's inception. Emissions of particulate matter, or anything in the air that may be contaminated, set off the air monitors five times since November 15th, 2023. The explanation for these detections was that the air monitoring system is extremely sensitive and can be set off by severe weather events, which was the cause for multiple detections and the others were explained to not be caused by the Ameren/CIPS MGP site.

Positives were presented for the pump and treat system which were the system history of good results and the materials being in place at the site currently. The negatives for the project were the 100-year timeline and the maintenance and repair needs.

A question and answer session was put before the public, questions were only allowed to be about the pump and treat system. One question for IEPA inquiring about well water samples came back with the detection of contamination, but the well was the third of three wells where the first two did not display detection, the IEPA explained that the detection was caused by an outside factor and not the remediation site.

About 15 people were in attendance and three citizens brought questions to the board where more confirmation was found that the Illinois EPA and Ameren have been acting in accordance with EPA standards.

More data is expected from Ameren in the coming weeks, says the IEPA Community Relations team.

Site history and five-year plans can be found at the Taylorville Public Library.