City crews respond to large foam discharge at Stone Street; industry forced main traced as source, investigation ongoing

Kankakee City staff described a significant foam discharge late Friday that emerged from a buried manhole at Stone Street and Kennedy Drive and briefly closed northbound lanes on Kennedy Drive to protect cleanup crews.

Superintendent Newton said crews traced the foam to the factory’s forced main, which discharges directly to the city collection system with no other connections. "It did look like a like a bubble bath," Newton said, describing heavy foam that, when agitated in the channel, produced large amounts of suds. Crews suited up to protect large screw pumps, applied defoamer supplied by the industry, used Vactor and DPW equipment to remove foam from the roadway, and buried manholes to stop the surfacing.

Lab manager McGinnis earlier reported the department had dealt with an oil discharge on Pearson Parkway in the same timeframe; staff said they backtracked the spill but had not identified the responsible party. For the Stone Street foam incident, Newton said a small amount reached the river but that overall environmental impacts appeared limited; staff described the material as non-hazardous but said the investigation is ongoing.

Enforcement and costs: Newton and the city manager said police and fire assisted with traffic control and resource deployment and that staff are compiling costs (personnel time, equipment, contractor usage) to present to the responsible industry. Alderman Nasunga asked whether the EPA would be involved; staff said EPA "possibly could be" involved and noted MS4 (stormwater) enforcement issues will be considered as part of follow-up.

Next steps: staff will finish paperwork, finalize costs for police and fire standby and equipment, and meet with the factory to discuss remediation, reimbursement and process changes. The board received the report but took no formal enforcement action at the meeting.