Clean-up plan to be filed about Trustees GardenNovember 9, 2000
The clean up of Trustees Garden in downtown Savannah is creeping along slowly.
Atlanta Gas Light Co., owner of the site, will file a corrective action plan with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division by Nov. 15. AGL expects to begin excavation of contaminated soil at the site early next year, said spokesman Roland Young.
Copies of the plan will be available to the public at local libraries as soon as it is filed. AGL will probably hold a public information meeting on the plan soon afterward, Young said. EPD then must decide whether it wants to hold a formal meeting, although one is not required at this point. Four residential renters and seven business renters have been asked to leave the site when their leases terminate Feb. 28. They received five months' notice. The clean-up excavation will take place adjacent to their front doors, Young said.
For now, a chain link fence surrounds where the excavation will take place. The clean up is needed to treat soils impacted by a former manufactured gas plant that operated on the site from 1850 to 1953. The soils are contaminated by coal tar -- a chemical blend that contains some known carcinogens.
When the clean up is complete, The Beals Co. of Savannah plans to build a hotel, apartments, townhouses and retail shops on the site.