Wood River Refinery west fence line environmental investigations, Roxana, Illinois

Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (Illinois EPA) is requiring Shell Oil Products US (Shell) to investigate and adequately remediate Petroleum product releases at and near the Conoco-Phillips Wood River Refinery in Roxana, Illinois. One of the release locations is along a portion of the western boundary of the refinery; another is near the intersection of Rand Ave. and Central St. The area potentially affected by the two releases is bounded to the north by 1st St., to the south and Rand Ave., to the west by Central St. and to the east by Chaffer St. Shell owned the refinery for many years and is responsible for addressing certain environmental issues there. Shell has conducted initial environmental investigations in this area and found relatively high concentrations of certain petroleum chemicals, including benzene, in subsurface soil vapors near the refinery boundary and dissolved hydrocarbons in groundwater at several specific locations.