The Mayors

Since the 1970s, the Mayor of Bloomington, Indiana has been at the center of the PCB controversy. Mayor Frank McCloskey, who latter became a United States Congressman, was Mayor when PCBs were first discovered.

Mayor Tomi Allison signed the controversial consent decree in 1985 which proposed the building of a hazardous waste incinerator and hazardous waste ash landfill in Monroe County. This document placed the liability of the cost of the cleanup on Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

Mayor John Fernandez was elected mayor in 1995 and vowed to be the last mayor of Bloomington to have to deal with the PCB issue. To date Mayor Fernandez has brought the governmental parties together in their common objectives to a safe and timely cleanup and has helped in moving the once stalled process forward. In 1997, the first cleanup of one of the five sites was started at Winston Thomas, and since then all the sites have been excavated. There are piles of PCB contaminated matter at Lemon Lane and Neal's Landfill, and there are continuing problems with contaminated water and sediments contaminating Clear Creek and Conard's Branch. Bennett's Quarry is now showing increased releases into Stout's Creek as well.