A multistate trust that’s cleaning up a Superfund site in Navassa will hold a meeting on Thursday to update the public on the progress of the project. WHQR’s Sarah Reith has more.
From 1936 to 1974, a series of companies ending with the Kerr-McGee Chemical Corps, processed railroad ties, utility poles, and pilings on about 70 acres of a 246- acre site. In 2005 Kerr-McGee passed it to another company, which filed for bankruptcy.
Five years later, the EPA added about 100 acres of the property to its list of superfund sites, after finding that the soil, water, and sediment had been severely polluted by creosote and other chemicals. The ongoing cleanup is funded by the bankruptcy settlement.
In 2011, the Greenfield Environmental Multistate Trust LLC took over 154 acres of the original site and divided it into zones, each with its own customized plan for remediation. Some of the property was not polluted and is now for sale.
In February of this year, work on one 16-acre section of the site has been completed. Work is ongoing in the other areas, which include marshland, and is likely to continue for several years.
The Multistate Trust, which works with state and federal environmental regulatory agencies, plans to donate 30 acres to the town of Navassa, as a Gullah Geechee heritage center and nature park, under a conservation easement administered by the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust.
The public meeting will be at 5:30 on Thursday, November 12 at the Navassa Community Center on 338 Main Street in Navassa. A zoom link is available at tinyurl.com/Navassameetings.
