For decades the people who lived around the old Kerr McGee plant in Columbus have been fighting for funds to clean up their neighborhood.
Today, there is real progress. The problem began with Creosote. It has a tar-like smell and is used to keep wood from rotting. At the old plant, it was used on railroad ties, cross switches and timber.
Read MoreIn three months, the Seventh Avenue ditch has transformed from an open, jagged trench filled with snakes, exposed pipes and other dangers to an unassuming grassy space.
Willie Riley, a Seventh Avenue resident who's lived near the ditch since 1995, said he's happy the transformation is complete.
Read MoreA 31-acre strip of Jacksonville riverfront is a tiny step closer to being useable for the first time in decades.
But it will stay fenced and plastered with warning signs for at least another year before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency can start construction to clean up pollution that scientists once said could make people sick within weeks if they lived there.
Read MoreWork on the Seventh Avenue ditch environmental remediation project is moving at a quicker pace than expected.
Read MoreRepresentatives from a group tasked with cleaning up a contaminated northwest Springfield industrial site said Wednesday they are planning to do more testing beyond the property line as they try to determine how much of the area has been affected.
The Greenfield Environmental Trust Group — which is responsible for cleaning up the site of the old Kerr-McGee railroad tie plant — held its first public meeting in Springfield on Wednesday at the Library Station on Kansas Expressway.
Read MoreEast Helena Public Schools officials signed a deal Wednesday to take ownership of 50 acres of Dartman Field, according to school district superintendent Ron Whitmoyer.
“The final cost to the district is $90,931,” he said.
“This is a banner day for the taxpayers of East Helena -- to have this property as a place to expand the school district as it continues to grow,” he said, “and hopefully serves the school district the next 50 years.”
Read MoreThe Multistate Trust is making strides in the cleanup at the former Kerr-McGee Superfund site in Columbus, Mississippi, and the major part of the cleanup is expected to begin in early 2017, said Multistate Trust Environmental Programs Director Lauri Gorton. She personally meets with community members at the Columbus Municipal Complex each month to update the public on the project’s progress: “We want everyone to be informed.”
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Read MoreSo, how do you eat an elephant? For some of us, the former Tronox/Kerr-McGee Superfund site in Columbus looked like an elephant.... and we were being asked to eat it.
In January 2010, federal and state environmental officials toured the former Kerr-McGee wood treatment facility and the challenges surrounding it. At that time, stakeholders, including Tronox, City officials, MDEQ and EPA were struggling to find a way to address cleanup, safety, and drainage issues along 14th Avenue in Columbus, Mississippi. Oh, by the way, 14th Avenue runs the boundary between the street and the former wood treating facility. Challenges related to liability, right-of-way, and a multitude of "what ifs" seemed to be dragging the project down. In addition, Tronox was, at that time, in the middle of a bankruptcy dispute, of which the Department of Justice, twenty-two States, and EPA soon got involved. In a word, the project was "complex." At times, I felt like we were attempting to eat an elephant.
Read MoreGreenfield has been awarded two National Phoenix Awards for federal Superfund site redevelopment—the highest honor for management excellence in brownfields redevelopment. We are the only organization to have received two awards for this category.
In 2000, we received recognition for our accomplishments at the Industri-plex Site in Woburn, Massachusetts. See the Phoenix Award on display at the Anderson Regional Transportation Center in Woburn.
In 2005, we were recognized for our work at the Mountain Pine Pressure Treating Site in Plainview, Arkansas.
Read MoreA reporter recounts how other sessions at the Oklahoma Brownfields Conference focused on data. But when Greenfield Vice President Marc Weinreich presented the session “Recovering from Our Industrial Past: Redeveloping Heavily Contaminated Properties,” the reporter stopped simply processing information. Journalist Richard Mize began to ponder the present and future of contaminated lands.
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