Cambridge radium solution may cost $555K

CAMBRIDGE -- Engineers are recommending the village spend $555,450 on a filtration plant to remove excess radium from the water.

A hydrous manganese oxide (HMO) treatment to remove radium would be guaranteed to remove 90 percent of radium.

The village got a violation notice from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency last February that the radium was six picocuries per liter, which was more than the maximum contaminant level of five. This spring the state said they were turning the matter over to the U.S. EPA.

Leo Foley of Veenstra and Kimm told a committee of the whole meeting Monday that the alternatives have unattractive risks. He said a new well may have the same problem, and a deep well, while offering “guaranteed production forever,” would cost between $800,000 and $1 million. Reconstructing the faulty well risks reducing flow to the extent the village would have to do something else and spend even more. He said an “absorption” or resin facility would be expensive because the resin filters become hazardous waste.

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