Chambana Sun

The city council of Danville held a public hearing on a grant application.

“Phase two, we go out, we drill, we sample oil and groundwater samples, evaluate threat of contamination,” Ross Grimes, a representative of Fehr Grahm, said to the board during the meeting. “In this case, those investigations started in 2013 on the Finders Cleaners site. And they've basically progressed here through 2021 into early 2022 as this site became aggregated into the remediation area that we know today. So this is just a snapshot of the investigations that have been that have been completed on the site. The different colors represent different events. So a lot of groundwater sampling out here and some soil as well. So again, we're looking for petroleum impacts and we're also looking for those volatile chlorinated solvents that could be coming from some dry cleaner. So quite a lot of work has been done out on the site to investigate and to characterize the site.”

The council uploaded a Livestream of its public meeting to the city’s YouTube channel.

The is applying for a clean-up grant for a parcel of properties within the village on Hazel and Vermillion Street. The old properties were found to be contaminated in phases 1 and 2 of the remediation program by Brownfield Redevelopment. The site is eligible for a clean-up grant funded by the Environmental Protection Agency but must hold a public hearing first to listen to any public input on the sites.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency funds the Brownfields Cleanup Grants. 

The representative of Fehr Graham, an environmental engineering firm, explained some of the contamination testing that they do on the sites. They have found contamination from the dry cleaners that used to be in one of the buildings along with some contamination from previous gas stations in the area. He explained that the best method for cleaning up the soil in the area and attracting a developer would be limited soil excavation, which takes the contaminated soil and brings it to a facility where it can be properly treated.

The council will meet again at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at the city council chambers in the Robert E. Jones Municipal Building on 17 West Main Street.

The project would cost just under an estimated $1 million. There is plenty of money available in Brownfield Clean Up grants, and they plan to target the $500,000 to $1 million range as there are the most available there and it fits the estimated costs of the project. The city already owns the plots, which is another requirement of the grant. After some discussion and public comment where no residents felt the need to speak, the city moved forward with the plan.