The owners of a River Forest dry-cleaning business may have to go to trial over a 2010 lawsuit alleging that contamination from their business is currently violating environmental regulations and endangering health.
A U.S. District judge last month decided that Ed and Helen Ditchfield, owners of River Forest Cleaners at Lake Street and Lathrop Avenue, will have to pay recovery costs to Forest Park National Bank under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or CERCLA, according to a summary judgment.
The bank sued the business in May of 2010, alleging improper disposal of the toxic chemical perchloroethylene, or perc, which led to soil contamination that left a bank-owned property on Ashland Avenue unable to be sold.
Bank President Dan Watts said Monday the property is still vacant and not suitable for living in until contamination testing is done. The bank is still attempting to sell it, Watts said, and they’re waiting for the lawsuit to be resolved before deciding their next step.
CERCLA allows those responding to hazardous waste release to be reimbursed for private cost recovery actions against those responsible for the release, the judgment said. The bank is now seeking reimbursement of $5,640 after it hired a company to investigate the contamination. The court also ruled the couple would be responsible for future response costs.
But the two cost-recovery claims don’t order the Ditchfields to arrange for a site cleanup, said Tom Daggett, an environmental lawyer representing the bank.
Daggett said the bank is seeking to coordinate negotiations between the Ditchfields, the village and Keystone Ventures LLC — whose president has an agreement with the village to redevelop the block — so that the site can get cleaned up with part of the funds from a now-closed tax incremental financing district. A message left for the Ditchfields was not returned.
The $1.9 million in TIF dollars must be used before the end of next year or be distributed to taxing bodies. Village Administrator Eric Palm said a large part of that could be used toward remediation.
Keystone President Tim Hague has said disagreements with the Ditchfields have made purchasing the parcels on the site difficult, and he can’t move forward with the redevelopment without owning the property. Hague did not return a message requesting comment.
The bank also alleged that the business caused the perc contamination in violation of hazardous waste disposal regulations in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCRA. The court ruled the violations occurred mostly before a change in dry cleaning equipment in 1992, and past violations should not be subject to a citizen’s suit, even if perc is still present.
Decisions on whether there are current violations, or that the endangerment to health from the perc contamination is imminent, were held for trial, as well as three other counts of financial loss claimed by the bank. Daggett said. But the court granted the Ditchfields’ request Aug. 7 to refer the case to a magistrate judge for settlement without a trial.
Daggett said the judge would set that schedule, and he did not know how long litigation could take.
