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Public asks whether Geneva Steel site was really cleaned; staff outlines CAMU, DEQ oversight and costs
Summary
Chip Price asked whether remediation at the Geneva Steel site merely consolidated contaminated soil into a pile; staff explained the Corrective Action Management Unit (CAMU) approach under EPA/DEQ, described BioSparge treatment and said roughly $40–50 million has been spent to date with an estimated $100 million more to fully prepare the site for unrestricted development.
Chip Price asked the board whether the Geneva Steel cleanup resulted in contaminated soil simply being scraped and consolidated in a pile near the lake. "Did they actually clean anything, or did they just push all the toxic soil into 1 area?" he asked. Staff responded that the work largely followed federal corrective action procedures (CAMU) under RCRA and that the CAMU is an engineered containment meant to consolidate certain solid wastes on‑site rather than move them off‑site.
Agency oversight for approvals to build on former industrial areas rests with the state Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) working under federal law, staff said. The developer’s environmental team has been working with DEQ on corrective action plans, groundwater testing and BioSparge oxygen‑injection techniques to accelerate biodegradation of petrochemical contaminants. Staff gave an approximate cost estimate: about $40–50 million spent to date, CAMU and related operations costing roughly $10–15 million, and an additional rough estimate of about $100 million to get the whole site ready for broad development uses. Staff also noted that some constraints, such as large areas of in‑place concrete, will influence where and how development occurs.
