LASALLE – The U.S. and Illinois EPA say additional testing would not be useful and able to determine further impacts to residents caused by the Carus Chemical Fire in LaSalle. According to a letter addressed to the City of LaSalle, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency says they believe that the sampling to date performed by and for government agencies appropriately characterized the impacts from the fire and the recommendations provided to the public by the Illinois Department of Public Health and the LaSalle County Health Department should be heeded. The agency also believes that air quality testing is not needed and has potential confounding factors as there are many potential indoor air pollutants found in any house including paint, air fresheners, carpeting and furniture, indoor wood burning, cleaning products, fuels, and numerous other sources. They say it would be difficult to attribute the results of any indoor air pollution to a specific source. The U.S. EPA says the City of LaSalle’s soil testing of residential yards shows that manganese levels are not above health-based screening levels. They go on to say that if residents are concerned with potential contamination in their homes, the most effective way to lower the risk of potential metals exposure would be to mop floors and dust counters and furniture.
In regards to outside testing from the Sierra Group where furnace filters were tested, the EPA says those results do not have a screening level for comparison purposed and EPA could not make any conclusions on possible impact from the fire based on these results. The EPA says they see no value in collecting furnace filter samples because a volume of air is needed to determine a weight over volume which could then be compared to known screening levels. Since furnace filters would be collected from multiple sources with presumable different furnaces, flow rates, filters, and filters installed at different times, it would be difficult to determine the volume of air that went through the filter. Therefore recreating conditions needed to compare the filters from during the fire to post-fire would be impossible.
