Brownfield Committee Needs to Prove Eligibility

(posted Aug 14)

The Speedway Brownfield Committee needs to coordinate with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management and EPA to satisfy the EPA's Resource Conservation and Recovery Act's requirements to prove eligibility for the Allison plant 2 Brownfield Study. The committee has to prove eligibility at each site to receive its $200,000 EPA grant money that it was awarded last year.

According to Keith Veal of Sustainable Solutions, the EPA likes to see cooperative efforts and endorsement of the project from IDEM would help the EPA to sign off on the project. IDEM is not involved in the Allison plant 2 closure. Veal explained that GM Allison voluntarily started the closure process by decommissioning the plant.

GM has to remove contaminants first from the outside, including above ground chemical contaminants as well as below ground.

Speedway Redevelopment Commissioner Vince Noblet explained he is not sure what kind of contaminants are on the east side of Main Street. He said old transformers are located there because it was tied to a loop system. He indicted there is a possibility that PCBs could be there because it was tied into a live feed. Noblet noted that the utilities lines go under the road

Town Manager John McCurtain said that the town would not be liable for granting an easement to a utility to run the lines. The liability rests with Allison and the utility company because they put the material in the ground.

Veal said it is doubtful that Town would be held liable for buying the contaminated property since they are trying to cleanup the parcel for redevelopment. He said many times units of government inherit brownfields because of bankruptcy or tax defaults. The EPA recognizes these issues.

GM Allison has already started the Phase 1 and Phase 2 study and its case file can be read at the library.

The committee discussed establishing the criteria needed to show the EPA that Praxair's lime pile is in need of a brownfield study. He said Praxair is different because the 11 acre site is active. Veal said the committee has to determined how much of the site is under utilized because of the lime pile.

Noblet said dimensions of the lime pile are currently being conducted to see how many cubic yards of lime exist. He noted that small amounts of lime are still being added to the pile.

Noblet also noted that Norm Gallivan, the current owner of the former Electric Steel Castings, has conducted phase 1 and phase 2 studies and would furnish the report so a duplicate study would not have to be conducted. The SRC has placed a $1.7 million option to buy the property.

The next meeting is November 12 at 3 pm in the Speedway Town Hall.