CLINTON —
With the removal of contaminated soil completed, the Environmental Protection Agency granted oversight of the Clinton Coal Gas Superfund site to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Matt Culp with the IDNR, who will serve as project manager, said the active remedial work such as removal of coal tar and other contaminants from the site has been completed.
The Interstate Power and Light Company, now apart of Alliant Energy, performed the work under an administrative order of consent with the EPA. In addition to site investigation work, IPL removed 120,000 tons of soil contaminated with coal, tar, lead and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), the EPA reports.
The site, located on the west side of Riverview Park between Fourth Avenue North and Second Avenue South, was formerly home to Allied Steel and a manufactured gas plant, which caused the coal and gas tar contamination.
The site has been eyed for several uses over the years including by the city of Clinton for expanding Riverview Park and the community pool complex.
Environmental cleanup efforts from federal, state and city agencies have been underway for more than 20 years. Figures from 2005 estimate the cleanup costs to the site are around $14 million. Current cost estimates were not available.
IPL will complete any remaining items with oversight from the IDNR through the state’s Land Recycling Program, Culp said. These items will be mostly paperwork.
Under the Land Recycling Program, IPL will need to complete a risk evaluation based on the work that has been done, which will then be reviewed by the IDNR.
An environmental covenant will also need to be drafted to address future use of the site. The environmental covenant would ensure, among other things, the area could not be used to provide drinking water because of residual contamination to the ground water.
After both of these items have been completed, Alliant will be issued a no further action certificate and control of the property. This certificate could be reopened if there were any major changes to the use or the property was sold by Alliant. One instance which would cause the certificate to be reopened, Culp said, is if Alliant were to remove the buildings from the property, which would allow the IDNR to evaluate the contaminated property beneath the buildings which previously could not be.
Culp said while the IDNR wants work to be done prudently and quickly, he could not anticipate a completion date more specific than 2013.
Local News
August 18, 2012
DNR to oversee superfund site
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