The Jennison-Wright Corporation site covers 20 acres in Granite City, Illinois. Industrial operations ran there from before 1920 until 1989. Poor storage practices, spills, and waste piles left soil and groundwater contaminated. The site was added to the National Priorities List (NPL), the federal roster of the most serious hazardous waste sites, in June 1996. It has been vacant since 1990.
EPA identified 22 contaminants of concern in soil and groundwater. These include heavy metals such as arsenic and manganese, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) like benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) including benzo[a]pyrene and naphthalene, pentachlorophenol, and dioxin compounds measured as TCDD toxicity equivalents. Several of these chemicals appear in both soil and groundwater.
Illinois EPA leads the cleanup, with support from the federal EPA. Short-term actions between 1992 and 2003 stabilized contamination and removed critical materials. The long-term remedy was selected in 1999 and updated in 2005 and 2009. It included off-site disposal of contaminated soil and waste, steam and hot water injection to pull non-aqueous phase liquids out of groundwater, subsurface injections for less-contaminated groundwater zones, removal of dioxin-contaminated soils, excavation of the Jennite Pit and 22nd Street Lagoon, and cleanup of additional areas. Physical construction of all cleanup work was completed in September 2009.
The groundwater treatment system continues to operate. Quarterly monitoring checks whether the remedy is working as intended. Human exposure to site contamination is under control, meaning no unacceptable exposure pathways exist right now. However, contaminated groundwater is still migrating and has not been fully contained. Not all cleanup goals for current and future land uses have been met, and institutional controls restricting use of site soils and groundwater are still being put in place. The most recent five-year review was completed by EPA in September 2024.
Community members with questions about the site can contact Remedial Project Manager Nilia Green directly by phone or email using the information below.
