The 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 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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