The East Lagoon is contaminated.

When NIU started planning its lagoon storm renovation project, traces of elements found in the East Lagoon called for special permits to be obtained from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for proper soil disposal.

“These are trace elements above IEPA limits of barium and trace elements of lead,” said Patricia Perkins, assistant to the executive vice president of NIU’s Division of Finance and Facilities. “These elements were found in the soil during the planning stage. This was not something realized after construction began.”

Phase I of the $8.5 million storm water improvement lagoon project began in early August and was supposed to be completed this fall. But because of unforeseen weather conditions, the project is slightly off schedule.

Phase I includes the dredging of the East and LaRusso lagoons and hauling away the silt that has been accumulating in them.

This silt is contaminated. Perkins said several samples of lagoon dirt were tested on more than one occasion.

Chuck Corley, an environmental protection specialist for the bureau of water, said several different metals including barium and lead were found in the lagoon.

“The materials that caused some interest, not necessarily concern, were the levels of arsenic, barium, cadmium and lead,” Corley said. “Out of dozens and dozens of samples taken, there were only three samples that caught their interest.”

While some of the elements found were above detectable limits, none of them approached levels that would be considered hazardous.

The soil from the lagoons is being hauled to a Rochelle municipal landfill.

“The landfill and the university do have a joint permit to haul the material to the landfill,” Corley said. “They did not apply for a permit for land application — it could have gone several different places, but they chose not to do that.”

Land application would’ve allowed the material to be scattered on areas such as landscapes, golf courses or used as landfill cover.

“Everything has some risk, but this does not present a greater risk now,” Corley said. “The levels are very, very small and in addition, there are probably other silt sediments throughout the area and the county that are no greater than this.”

While presence of the elements may cause alarm to those in contact with the area, Corley said their existence is not abnormal.

“[There is] no significant risk,” Corley said. “It’s slightly elevated, but not unusual.”

Though the soil removal may not be common knowledge, Perkins said her department didn’t try to keep anything from the public.

“We knew there were trace elements and there was no effort on anyone’s part to cover anything up,” Perkins said. “There is nothing to cover up.”

No matter how planned the removal process was, nothing could overcome Mother Nature.

“Initially, we did pretty well,” Perkins said. “Then began one of the wettest late summer, early fall, that has occurred since they began keeping records.”

The abundance of precipitation received this fall has made hauling materials away more of a problem. The wetness of the soil and material located in the lagoons caused an increase in total weight for removal.

While Perkins said the delay is because of weather, she added that NIU still will try and meet its target date.

“We are still hopeful that Phase I of this project will be completed this year,” Perkins said.

Phase II, set to begin next summer, will include dredging the channel that flows through campus connecting the lagoons and replacing several footbridges.