The Kishwaukee River is contaminated, according to the Illinois Environment Protection Agency.

The contaminant, polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, typically is found in coolants and lubricants used for transformers, capacitors and other electrical equipment. They have adverse effects when they build up in the environment and pose potentially dangerous health effects, especially for children.

Whether airborne or through bodies of water, PCBs can travel long distances and remain implanted within the environment for extended periods of time.

PCBs enter the environment by agents illegally spilling the almost extinct substance into a lake, which then filters through rivers and streams.

Bruce Yurdin, manager of the Watershed Management section of the IEPA’s Bureau of Water, said PCBs may have been introduced to the Kishwaukee River through some sort of leakage.

There have been occasional spills that deposited PCBs into the water, Yurdin said. Another possibility is the PCBs being deposited by the air, which happens when the substance is picked up by the wind. When it rains, the PCBs fall into streams and lakes, he said.

While these are the likely causes of the chemical entering the river, finding the exact location of where the PCBs were released would be difficult and time-consuming, Yurdin said.

The chemicals found in the river were not introduced by the DeKalb Sanitary District, said Janice Tripp, assistant manager of administration for the district.

“We test for PCBs and none were found,” Tripp said. “So none are coming from the plant.”

Regardless of the PCBs’ originating source, the more critical issue is how PCBs are finding their way into the river’s habitat, Yurdin said.

“This pollutant is acting as a pool that feeds into aquatic life,” Yurdin said. “The only measure we took to determine this was to look at fish tissue that turned out to be fairly atypical to the kind seen in actual water column. PCBs in rivers are attracted to both sediments and the fatty tissues of fish.”

The IEPA strongly suggests limiting fish intake from those caught in the Kishwaukee River to one per month.

In order to minimize and ultimately rid the Kishwaukee River of this problem, various methods might be installed to alleviate the river of the chemicals, said Tracy Hurley, an environmental toxicologist for the IEPA.

“Dredging the sediments is one way,” Hurley said. “But if they don’t break down very readily, then we’d look to somehow drain the water as best we could out of the body of water.”

Waiting and allowing nature to remove the chemical is another possibility, but there is no guarantee the PCBs would dissipate completely from the river, Hurley said.

The IEPA will continue monitoring the problem until a plan to rid the river of PCBs is completed.