An abandoned Superfund site in the city may see new life as a solar energy producer.
The city of Columbus is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to consider a solar panel farm at the former Kerr-McGee Chemical Plant. The EPA announced earlier this month it will study the site to determine what kind and whether a renewable energy facility can be built on the property at 2300 14th Ave. N.
“We just got the announcement,” City Planner Christina Berry said Monday. She expects a timeline on the feasibility study and the process within the next few days.
The city is proposing a portable 2-megawatt solar panel farm on 25 of the property’s 90 acres that would power one-fifth, or 2,000, of the city’s 10,000 households. The city also proposed an expansion to 50 acres that could power half the city’s homes, if the EPA determines it is feasible, to provide energy for a community center, small businesses, community health center, parks and gardens. Landscaping would be included. The panels have a life span of 20 to 25 years.
Berry said another goal is to use energy produced at the site to reclaim it during contamination cleanup. Excess power would be sold to the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The Kerr-McGee plant opened in Columbus in 1928, making railroad cross ties and other pressure-treated timber products. The facility also used pentachlorophenol, commonly known as PCP, for some of its processes. The plant was closed and the site was sealed off in 2003 amid allegations of environmental contamination — namely that creosote, a wood treatment chemical that has been linked to cancer, skin irritation and respiratory complaints, was leaching into the soil.
EPA designated the area as a Superfund site and added it to the National Priorities List of hazardous waste sites Sept. 15. An immediate emergency response was conducted in February 2011 at Maranatha Faith Center, where a pile of creosote-contaminated material was removed and a fence built to prevent children from accessing a nearby contaminated ditch.
A 50-by-50 area was excavated alongside Hunt Intermediate School, and soil was removed along Moss Street as well. The areas were then back-filled with clean soil and resodded.
The choice of the Kerr-McGee property is part of the EPA’s $1 million RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative. The Columbus site is one of 26 sites to be analyzed for its suitability for wind, solar, biomass or geothermal energy, according to a news release from the EPA.
“The RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative is not just about using these sites for energy production but using these sites to re-energize communities,” said Mathy Stanislaus, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, in a news release. “These studies are the first step to transforming these sites from eyesores today to community assets tomorrow.”
Berry said the feasbility study is different from the cleanup. Companies have bid on the cleanup project, but a company has not yet been selected. Berry expects that to be announced next month.
Employing local people was a consideration. “That was actually built into the (cleanup) proposal application,” she said.
Other sites chosen for feasibility studies are in Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, New Mexico, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Montana, California, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington.
More than 20 renewable energy projects have been built on contaminated sites and more are currently under way, the news release said. In 2010, a 6-megawatt solar panel farm was constructed on the Aerojet General Corp. Superfund site in Sacramento County, Calif. This solar farm is being used to power the cleanup. Also in 2010, the 10-megawatt Exelon City Solar installation, the largest urban solar power plant in the United States, was built on a brownfield site in Chicago.
A spokesperson for the EPA was not available by press time this morning.
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