The 1409 Dundee property was the location of the Silbert Watch Company from 1954 to 1971. The operation included the painting of radium dials and watch hands. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency Division of Nuclear Safety (IEMA/DNS), formerly the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety (IDNS), previously evaluated the Site and a portion of the adjacent property (670 Stewart) in 1988 and there are some records of the work that was done at the time. There is a single photo of the building from 1988 and the building appears in poor condition. There are no records of remediation. After the Silbert Company ceased using the property, the building housed a mattress store and was eventually involved in a fire that resulted in the building being demolished. The building disappeared from Google Earth® imagery between 1994 and 1999.
IEMA/DNS conducted a cursory radiological site assessment for the two properties on July 31, 2019. The assessment consisted of a gamma count rate walkover survey utilizing a 2x2 sodium iodide detector coupled to a Ludlum 2221 rate meter, gamma dose rate measurements, and soil sampling. All soil samples were submitted to IEMA's Radiochemistry Laboratory for gamma spectral analysis. The gamma spectral analysis identified radium-226 concentrations ranging from natural background to 226 picocuries per gram (pCi/g). In a letter to EPA, dated October 18, 2019, stated that IEMA/DNS does not have the personnel or financial resources necessary to conduct further assessment of the properties and requested the EPA conduct a comprehensive site assessment and concur with their request for a time-critical removal action (DNS/IEMA, 2024).
