A wall and sign borders Jack & Sons Auto Salvage in Greenfield, where a study is underway to determine if any environmental contaminants are present there.
GREENFIELD — A search is underway for environmental contaminants at an auto salvage yard and a city-owned property in an effort to better secure their futures.
It’s part of a federal grant the city received to study sites with the potential presence of hazardous materials that may have made their way into the soil and groundwater. Funds have so far paid for researching the history of the locations, prompting sampling and further study. The program has also helped with soil management at a new city park that’s being built on the site of a former rail yard. About a year into the three-year grant, there’s still plenty of money left for more work to be done.
Greenfield received $300,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the grant, which aims to stimulate redevelopment in underused parts of the city. The program funds two kinds of studies. Phase 1 studies entail researching the environmental history of sites, calling for activities like site visits; taking photographs; conducting interviews with property owners and occupants; and looking at property record databases, transaction histories and reports the state may have on properties.
Phase 2 studies involve activities like taking soil, water and waste samples; air monitoring; and investigations into asbestos and lead-based paint.
Funds cannot be used for cleanups, but can be used for remediation planning.
The grant can be used for properties in city limits that are industrial, commercial and municipal. In general, residential properties don’t qualify, but funds can be used for apartment complexes.
Indianapolis-based BCA Environmental Consultants is doing the work for the city through the grant. Leonard Hinrichs II, business development manager for the firm, said a Phase 1 study has been completed on Jack &Sons Auto Salvage, 318 E. South St. in Greenfield.
“Based on that, we determined that a Phase 2 is necessary,” Hinrichs said, adding the firm recently took groundwater and soil samples at the site and is awaiting their results.
Jack Dossey, owner of the salvage yard, said he moved in the business in 1988.
“After a period of time, you kind of like to know where you’re at,” Dossey said. “I know one day, when I die off, someone may want to do something with this ground, maybe.”
Hinrichs said BCA has also conducted a Phase 1 study on land the city owns at 219 S. Pennsylvania St., just southeast of the new Depot Park that’s nearing completion. He anticipates a Phase 2 study there as well due to the location’s former use as a petroleum storage area.
“Any time you have those types of petroleum products or any other hazardous substances having been stored on a facility, it’s usually important to try to check and see if some of that made it into the ground or the groundwater,” Hinrichs said.
Greenfield’s downtown revitalization plan envisions a parking garage and mixed and commercial uses on the site.
BCA and the city have used the grant funds for remediation and reuse planning at Depot Park as well. The site’s former use as a rail yard and passenger depot brought coal ash, and the metals within it, to the ground there. Hinrichs said in the early stages of the park’s construction, as dirt was moved, the EPA funds paid for training on what soil needed to be separated and taken to a landfill and what could be covered by other materials to eliminate exposure.
He estimates there’s about $200,000 left from the grant. The city has about two years left to allocate it.
“There’s plenty of money for other sites to be assessed at this point in time,” Hinrichs said.
Joan Fitzwater, Greenfield’s planning director, said environmental issues can be complicating for property owners and potential property buyers, and the EPA funds can help alleviate those difficulties.
“It’s a burden on property owners, and we’re really happy to have the grant,” she said. “I just wish it was being taken advantage of more.”
The program can help facilitate property transactions, Hinrichs said, by funding the pricey studies.
“If they’re planning on buying a property in the Greenfield area and it used to be something else in the past, or just vacant, or abandoned, or it just had kind of a checkered history, then this might be the perfect opportunity to take advantage of the EPA grant to perform these types of assessment services prior to them purchasing it,” he said.
Those who are interested in the grant’s services should call Fitzwater at 317-325-1329.
