| Account | The sections of the Vermilion River from Undercut Rock almost all the way down to the Oglesby take out have been closed by the cement plant. There were several accidents on the river over the last few weeks and evidently the cement plant is concerned about liability. Anyone who has ever run this section of the river knows that the cement plant low head dam MUST be run on the right side. There have been several accidents when people have not gotten river right before the dam and have been caught in the waters strong undertow below the dam on the left side. I still don't think they should close the river. If anyone knows anything about the law that would pertain to this, please contact me, as we are just beginning a fight to have the river reopened in time for next spring. So, at this point in time, the river is closed. Anyone attempting to run the river past undercut rock (including Wildcat) is threatened with arrest. We would surely appreciate any backing of our fight to have the river re-opened, as we feel it is a public waterway, even though the cement plant owns some of the land on both sides of the water. Most of the land on the right hand side of the river is owned by the State of Illinois and is a part of Matthesien State Park. I am not sure how the cement plant can close an entire stretch of the river, especially when a portion of the land on one side is owned by the state. If anyone out there knows anything about the laws regarding this, your assistance would be greatly appreciated. |
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| Time | 2009-07-06 16:07:00 GMT |
| River Reported | ermillion River from undercut rock to Oglesby take out |
| River |
Vermilion [IL]
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User Comments
was at flood stage and it was amazing. In the grand scheme of things that river is amazing. But I
can understand where they are coming from with closing the river because of death. There are
certain parts of the river that are deadly especially at flood stage wen we ran it was at 19 ft and
running very fast. We made the three hour trip in about 1 hr 15 min. This was after the 5 largest
crest on record at around 23 feet. Edit
about the cement plant is that it looks like they are dumping their process water or run-off into
the river. Has anyone from the state taken a pH reading or the amount of chlorides or lime? I was
more afraid of falling into the river and getting a mouthfull of what looks like contaminated
water. Doesn't concrete/ cement contain small amounts of Chrome-6? The same stuff that poisoned San
Bernardino County in the movie Erin Brockovich? I think their wastewater violates the EPA Clean
Water Act, along with the EPA Clean Water Initiative, which is currently targeting concrete
facilities throughout to keep process washwater away from Waters of the US. Edit