Contamination cleanup funds earmarked for former state mental health hospital in Tinley Park

Jul. 15--A long-awaited cleanup of contamination at the former Tinley Park Mental Health Center in Tinley Park is moving closer to reality.

Earmarked in a recent piece of legislation signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, $15 million is being allocated from the state's six year Rebuild Illinois capital plan, according to officials.

The grant money would be directed to the village, but how soon that might occur and a timetable for when work would begin remain unclear.

Late last year, Tinley Park officials wrote to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency saying conditions on the property present "an imminent and substantial endangerment" to the environment and public health.

The village asked the agency to step in and rid the 280-acre site of contaminants and secure the property with a fence.

The mental health center, northwest of Harlem Avenue and 183rd Street, closed in 2012. Tinley Park had been in negotiations with the state to acquire the property, with initial plans for a large housing development there and more recently a combination harness racing track and casino.

Pritzker, however, stepped in last October and blocked a possible sale of the site after the Chicago Tribune reported on business dealings involving one of the racino developers, and there have been no further talks since.

The village had previously estimated the cost of getting the site ready for development, including environmental cleanup and demolition of the many buildings on the property, at $12.4 million.

Testing completed in 2014 by a consultant hired by the village revealed environmental issues such as asbestos, an abandoned sewage treatment plant, leaking underground storage tanks holding gasoline and other petroleum products, drums containing chemicals and soil contaminated with mercury and lead.

In 2015, Tinley Park planned to pay the state what was then an asking price of $4.16 million for the property in a bid to gain greater control over what might be built there, then backed away from that idea.

Funding for the $45 billion Rebuild Illinois program relies in part on borrowing and increased revenue from sources such as higher taxes on fuel and money expected to be generated by an expansion of gambling in the state, including the addition of a casino in the south suburbs.

State Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Frankfort, who worked to secure the allocation for Tinley Park, said the village would need to work out an agreement with the state to either get ownership of the site or gain access to it for the cleanup.

Dave Niemeyer, Tinley Park's village manager, said Hastings told village officials about the process but that no talks had yet been scheduled with the state.

No detailed analysis of the property's condition has been made since the 2014 consultant's study, but a complaint filed by Tinley Park resident Nancy O'Connor brought Illinois EPA inspectors to the site last December.

A copy of their report, obtained by the Daily Southtown through a public records request, showed containers of known, as well as unknown, materials scattered around the property. Inside the power plant are about 30 metal and plastic drums, most of which are not labeled while others are labeled as containing used oil, according to the state examination.

In another building were dozens of of cans of paint thinner, and some barrels, the contents of which are not known, had been dumped in areas of the property.

Due to large amounts of suspected asbestos in the buildings, most were not entered, although one inspector wearing a respirator went into some of the structures, according to the report.

mnolan@tribpub.com

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