Pending approval from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Alliant Energy/Interstate Power Company will begin cleaning up the former site of the Albert Lea Light and Power gas plant in the spring or summer of 2002.

Wednesday, October 24, 2001

Pending approval from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Alliant Energy/Interstate Power Company will begin cleaning up the former site of the Albert Lea Light and Power gas plant in the spring or summer of 2002.

The site of the old plant, located near the railroad crossing at South Broadway and East Front Street, has been contaminated with coal tars and light oils, byproducts of the coal gasification process, since the plant ceased operation in 1933. In high concentrations, these contaminants are harmful to humans and other animals.

Though the structure was eventually demolished in 1950, the contaminants remained. The former Bubbles Car Wash now sits near the site.

According to spokesman Bruce Greer, Alliant/IPC has completed its assessment of the site and submitted a remediation plan to the MPCA.

&uot;Once the state gives the go ahead, we can begin to prepare the site and eventually implement the full-scale plan,&uot; Greer said.

Remediation or cleanup will involve intensive soil treatments and groundwater monitoring of the one-acre site and could take more than a year, Greer said. Even after the cleanup is complete, the company will continue to monitor the site for several years to make sure the contaminants are contained or removed.

&uot;Alliant takes its commitment to the environment very seriously,&uot; he said. &uot;In cases like this site, Alliant Energy’s policy is simple – we do the right thing.&uot; Greer said the site was not a dump for the coal tar and oil byproducts from the gas plant. In fact, most of the tar and oil produced was sold for industrial use. The contamination resulted more from the everyday handling of the materials.

&uot;It was a much different time in the early 1900s. I’m sure the people working at the site were operating to the standards of the day,&uot; Greer said. &uot;We just have much higher standards now, and our understanding of environmental impacts is more sophisticated.&uot;

Almost every community of any size in the upper Midwest had a gas plant of some kind, Greer said. Alliant/IPC is dealing with 57 former manufactured gas plant sites in its three-state service area of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.

&uot;These old gas plant sites are a major part of the company’s environmental commitment to the public,&uot; Greer said.

According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, it is estimated that more than 11 billion gallons of coal tar were generated at manufactured gas plants in the U.S. between 1816 and 1947. Much of the disposal of the tar remains unaccounted for.