William Boardman former South Works employee talks about seeing the dumping of Cynide into 15 foot drilled holes on the South Works site when he worked there in the early 1970s.
Interview by John Kugler Aug 28, 2024 at Meeting about 128-acre quantum computing complex planned for South Chicago at the SALUD Center, 3039 E. 91st St.
[ John Kugler ] What did you guys used to do over there?
[ William Boardman ] They had a truck with a drill on the back, and it would drill a hole.
[jk] That’s the place they’re gonna build this?
[wb] Right, where they were gonna build it. Yes, because the place they’re building it on the south end. That south end was already shut down by the seventies and eighties. There used to be blasters, kind of abandoned area, so they would go out there …
[jk] This is the west side or the east side of Lakeshore Drive. There’s two sides.
[wb] Well, not really much on the west side, east side, everything’s on the east side
[jk] On the lake side, right?
[wb] So they would drill a hole with this little drill rig, and then they would take the material that they used for plating, doing chrome plating, and all that, which is a lot of toxic heavy metals like cyanide, right? And we pour it down the hole.
[jk] So you drill the hole. How deep was that hole?
[wb] 15 feet.
[jk] So 15 foot hole, and
[wb] Pour the stuff in there. Cover it up. And then when you had more, he drilled another hole.
[jk] They just kept drilling holes all over
[wb] By the way, they did the same thing at Stewart Warner on the north side.
[jk] So is there like, do you guys got blueprints or drawings of where these holes are?
[wb] No
[jk] Or just eyeballed it?
[wb] Yeah, I didn’t do it, but I knew guys it did.
[jk] So there was no plan technically
[wb] No
[jk] Just drilled it
[wb] I mean, it was big area out there
[jk] So there’s Cyanide in the ground there
[wb] Oh, absolutely
[jk] you know if it was ever taken out
[wb] I doubt it. And that is 15 feet, they couldn’t strip 15 feet of top soil off of that
[jk] So that’s what happened at our place, where they were gonna put the migrants [38th and California], they said there was stuff under the ground, and they put gravel on it. Another guy who didn’t wanna lose his license, says, No, you got to scrap like three feet around the whole in place. You can’t just put people there. So you’re telling me there’s 15 foot deep of cyanide ?
[wb] Right
[jk] You want to say your name right here, or not
William Bordman
[jk] And used to work at where
[wb] At South Works
[jk] South Works. What years did you work there?
[wb] Oh, when in the hell did I worked there 1971 to 73 No, no. 73-74 something like that. I did my apprenticeship there.
[jk] So there’s no way that you, or how about this? And you’re a resident of this neighborhood, right?
[wb] Yep
[jk] So you worked there, you’re a resident and you have, to the best of your knowledge, you don’t know that 15 feet drill holes of Cyanide has ever been remediated
[wb] I doubt it
[jk] Why do you say you doubt it?
[wb] Because that’s a lot of dirt to take out of 600 acres. That’s way more dirt than you can imagine.
[jk] Oh, it ain’t a cup, it ain’t a dump truck. I can’t call my buddies with this dump truck. I’m making a little joke here, right?
[wb] That’s quite a bit
[jk] And then, how long did they do this Cyanide drilling?
[wb] I have no idea. They could have been doing it for the last 80 years. I don’t know. I mean, the mill started before the turn of the century.
[jk] When you were there, you seen it and this was in the seventies, and what’s your biggest concern about is this remediation and the chemicals.
[wb] No no I mean
[jk] That’s not your worry, right?
[wb] It’s not good, but they’re building, they’re gonna build stuff anyway. I mean, I don’t know if I would plant a tomato garden there and eat the tomatoes.
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