Sterigenics Reaches Deal That May Allow Company To Reopen
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Willowbrook-based Sterigenics has reached an agreement that may allow the medical sterilization company to fully reopen.
The company had been partially shut down after the EPA found it had released high levels of a cancer-causing chemical.
Just six months after community members celebrated Sterigenics being partially shut down now comes word it may fully reopen again through an agreement made with the Illinois Attorney General's office.
The proposed agreement would allow Sterigenics to again use ethylene oxide, but it would first have to create new systems to capture the EO gas. The EPA would have to approve that system.
Also Sterigenics would have to eliminate all emissions - no level of gas would be tolerated.
The CBS 2 Investigators, since January have exposed calls by federal lawmakers for criminal and civil investigations
Sterigenics also has to put up $300,000 to fund environmental improvement projects. There are no other fines or penalties.
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A judge still has to sign off on the consent order. The Illinois Attorney General's office says the agreement builds off a new law requiring the strictest ethylene oxide limits in the nation.