By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began work to clean up contamination at a site near the Great Bend Municipal Airport in 2008, and 15 years later the EPA is prepared to begin remedial action.
The former Plating Inc. building, on west 6th Street, used to be a chromium and zinc plating facility until filing for bankruptcy in 2006. Clint Sperry, EPA Remedial Project Manager, said a thorough site removal will take place.
"Since it was bankrupt, they left all the tanks full of different solutions," said Sperry. "One of the main reasons the site is a Superfund site is you have hexavalent chromium in the ground water. Your water table is around 12 to 13 feet below ground surface. One of the tanks was 22 feet. As most people know, steel tanks and water over years is not a good thing."
The remedial process will demolish the building by January and then treat and remove soil. Sperry said the EPA is hopeful to have the project finished by the spring 2025 and hopefully have the property available in the future.
"We definitely don't plan on having an empty lot forever," said Sperry. "We'll see what the groundwater shows in the next few years. It may have a covenant, meaning you can't put a well in or you can't dig below a certain depth. I don't know."
Chromium is a metal used mainly for making steel and other alloys and is considered a contaminant of concern. The Plating Inc. facility has been abandoned since 2006.