For the first time since December 2000, there are signs of human activity at the former Continental Steel main plant site. Workers in white protective suits, wearing protective rubber gloves and boots, are busy analyzing core samples from the contaminated ground.

[...]

June 8, the EPA announced it would spend $3 million on Continental Steel this year to build infrastructure for the eventual dredging of the site's highly contaminated creekbeds. Designated as a "new start," by the EPA, the Continental Steel site was officially placed into the ranks of priority cleanups.

To complete the main plant project, work is expected to proceed in three phases:

• The scientists currently on-site will use core-sample analysis to map out a grid on the site, showing the areas with the highest contamination of carcinogenic volatile organic chemicals in the soil. In particular, they'll be looking for concentrations of trichloroethylene, which was once heavily used as an industrial degreaser.


• The scientists will use the grid information to determine how and where to set up a heat vapor extraction system. The system will pump heat into the ground, which will force the volatile organic chemicals into a series of vacuum wells. The toxic fumes will be drawn out and disposed of.


• Once the volatile organic chemicals have been cleaned up, engineers will cover the entire site with a thick layer of topsoil and clean fill. The "cap" will protect the public from the contaminants still remaining in the ground, such as lead and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Unlike the volatile organic chemicals, those contaminants are considered unlikely to migrate into the groundwater or upward through the soil.