Six of eight Alton Park areas assessed as part of a federal grant have environmental conditions that make them candidates for a more-thorough study process to look at potential contamination, officials said tonight.
Yuen Lee, with the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency, said the next step in the three-year process is to select sites for phase II environmental assessment. She said this part of the process will be held in conjunction with updating the Alton Park Master Plan and the first public meeting is expected for May.
Ms. Lee said she hopes phase II assessments, which include sampling and testing to detect for potential pollutants, are completed by the fall.
“Hopefully we will have the money to do all six,” Ms. Lee said at a public meeting at Calvin Donaldson Elementary School.
The six areas have a variety of former and current uses, including schools, playgrounds and automobile repair shops. Some of the areas are near old industries, such as Velsicol and Chattanooga Coke, according to a presentation by contractor Dallas Whitmill, of Aquaterra Engineering.
The Environmental Protection Agency awarded the city a $200,000 brownfields grants in 2006 and Ms. Lee said officials are about halfway through the process. Stakeholders in Alton Park hope that some of these sites eventually can be cleaned up and used for new development.
For complete coverage see tomorrow’s Times Free Press.
Or login with:
New Account