September 25, 2016
Angie Nelson Deuitch, Public Affairs Manager with NIPSCO announced plans to address environmental impacts related to the former gas manufacturing operations on the property at 500 West Monroe Street in Plymouth.
NIPSCO has evaluated the site where they manufactured gas from coal and oil. NIPSCO and predecessor companies operated one of these plants at 500 W. Monroe Street from 1887 until 1930, producing gas from coal/oil for cooking and heating.
NIPSCO’s environmental team will be in Plymouth on September 27, to meet with local community members and businesses that may be impacted.
During NIPSCO’s investigation of the site for impacts to the environment from gas manufacturing, by-products and residues, which are primarily coal tar were found. The studies identified chemical compounds typically found at former gas plant sites at levels that exceed Indiana’s environmental standards. Although coal tar has impacted soil and groundwater, NIPSCO’s extensive investigations have determined that people on the property and in the surrounding area are not being exposed to unsafe levels of chemical compounds related to historical gas manufacturing operations.
The next step in NIPSCO’s project is to clean up impacted areas of the property with the goal of making sure the site continues to be safe and available for productive use over the long term. NIPSCO hired environmental engineering firm AECOM to prepare the Remediation Work Plan that calls for removing impacted surface soil and tar-like material found below ground in the central, west and northwest portions of the property.
IDEM and NIPSCO will establish an information repository for this project at the Plymouth Public Library, on North Center Street. A copy of the draft Remediation Work Plan will be placed in the library once approved.