Shorewood Tri-County Stockdale fire clean-up still ongoing

The cleanup of the July 19 fire that destroyed the Tri-County Stockdale feed and fertilizer operation in Shorewood has now lasted more than five weeks.

In a letter to the public on Friday evening, Shorewood Village Administrator Aaron Klima said he didn’t think anyone involved in the recovery process “predicted the long duration of time to clean up this incident.”

“I do however have some good news,” Klima said.

An environmental recovery contractor was able to pull apart smoldering materials at the Tri-County Stockdale site and firefighters with Troy Fire Department doused the hot spots with water or encapsulating foam to extinguish those remaining hot spots, Kilma said.

“As of this morning, [Troy Fire Chief Andy] Doyle reported that he believes the fire is fully extinguished,” Kilma said.

On July 19, Tri-County Stockdale, 25520 W. Black Road, was destroyed by a fire. Four of the six buildings on the site were destroyed. The site was a farm and landscaping supplier that sold fertilizer, feed and other materials.

With the fire now out, an environmental recovery contractor is working with the property owner and insurance company on disposal of materials from the site, Klima said.

“This has been far more complicated than I expected, hence the involvement of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the [Illinois] EPA and the Will County [Emergency Management Agency] and the Illinois Department of Agriculture,” Klima said.

Klima did not have a time frame for when the Tri-County site will be cleared but promised people are continuing to work on it.

Klima said Shorewood village officials have been informed that water quality samples for ponds in the Edgewater and Rollingwood subdivisions as late as mid-August have “returned favorably with contamination levels below the thresholds for concern for water quality standards or concern for aquatic life.”

Klima said the levels for a type of herbicide that controls broadleaf weeds is still a concern in the pond in the Saddlebrook subdivision but results results show improvements over time.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we maintain our request that people refrain from recreating at these pond areas until after all the recovery activity has ended and we have more testing to ensure the improving trends continue,” Klima said.

Anyone with questions on water quality in Shorewood are encouraged to contact Barb Lieberodff with the Illinois EPA by phone at 217-524-3038 or email at barb.lieberoff@illinois.gov.

Klima also noted the tanks on the roadways in the Saddlebrook and Rollingwood subdivisions will soon be gone. He said village officials believe the operation to empty the tanks will begin on Monday and they will be moved so the roadways can return to normal.