Tests Will Determine Background Levels of Asbestos in Beach Sands

Samples of beach sands collected between June 30 and July 14 at Oak Street Beach in Chicago, Highland Park Beach, Grant Park Beach in South Milwaukee will be tested for their content of asbestos by United Analytic Services. The samples collected downdrift and updrift from Illinois Beach State Park should provide a means of estimating just how much of the asbestos in the sand at Illinois Beach comes from manufactured materials and how much comes from natural sources in the glacial materials in the bluffs that line the Lake Michigan shoreline. (Contact: M. Chrzastowski)

ISGS may also use its expertise in processing materials to engineer a low-cost way of removing asbestos from the sand that is to be dredged and transported northward to restore the balance between erosion and deposition and thereby protect Illinois Beach State Park structures and habitats threatened by wave erosion. (Contact: L. Khan)

Updated 07/14/2011 SLD