SAUK VILLAGE | Bids were open on Tuesday night for the permanent Air Strippers at all three wells. Well #3 has been shut down since 2009 since the levels of vinyl chloride continued to rise higher than what the IEPA thought was safe.
The air strippers will remove the vinyl chloride from the water by an aeration process of blowing air into the water and the vinyl chloride is released from the water into a gas form and released. The process thus far has been successful since the Village was forced to install the temporary air strippers on Wells #1 and #2 on Sauk Trail last summer.
Alan Mack and Sons, Inc. of Orland Park, Illinois was the lowest overall bidder at $4.1 million, Boller Construction out of Waukegan, Illinois was the next highest bidder at $4.40 million and Theineman Construction, an environmental contractor out of Westfield, Indiana was the highest of the three at $4.44 million.
The Village will award the bids following review by the Village's Engineer Jim Czarnik of Robinson Engineering and his recommendation. The bids will be awarded "subject to the village obtaining the funds from the low interest loan from the IEPA" Czarnik said.
The village has not received the funds for the $5.5 million low interst loan from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency according to Czarnik. The project was expected to be underway according to the village's plan submitted to the IEPA earlier this year. Czarnik did not elaborate why the village had not received the funds.
The Village is under a Consent Decree with the Illinois Attorney General to get Well #3 back online as soon as possible and install "permanent air strippers" to provide safe drinking water. If either Wells #1 or #2 go down the village could be facing a very serious water crisis since there is no emergency water connection planned.
"I would like to know how the village went from nearly 50% water loss in March, 2013 to about 20% water loss today and the village has not spent a dime on infrastructure improvements" former mayoral candidate Bernice Brewer-Houston said following the meeting. Czarnik informed the Village Board two weeks ago that the Village's water loss is about 20% today.
Brewer-Houston has been a vocal advocate for clean drinking water for a number of years now. "The water is contaminated and we're going to spend $5.5 million dollars on treating contaminated water from 56 year old wells when we could spend that money on obtaining contaminant free water from another source" Brewer-Houston said.
The Village still does not have a Lake Michigan water allocation nor does it meet the Illinois Department of Natural Resources requirement of less than 8% water loss to qualify for an allocation according to Czarnik.
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| Typical Air Stripper Tower |
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