GRENADA, Miss. (AP) - Federal officials are putting a north Mississippi industrial site on the national Superfund list for cleanup.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday it is adding the Rockwell International Wheel & Trim site in Grenada to the list, making it eligible for long-term cleanup money.
The designation includes a 40-acre (16-hectare) parcel, as well as other locations where contaminants may have been disposed. The agency said adding the site will let it move ahead with a comprehensive cleanup of all the contamination at the site and in adjoining areas.
Ohio-based Ice Industries has operated part of the complex as Grenada Stamping since 2005. It was used from 1966 to the early 2000s to make wheel covers and plate them with chrome.
The industrial solvent trichloroethene was used there. It has been found on site, in an adjacent neighborhood, in a creek and at a dump site. Residents of the Eastern Heights neighborhood have long complained about contamination.
“EPA’s priority is to conduct the cleanup in a manner that allows the facility to continue to operate and protects the health of workers and nearby residents,” EPA Regional Administrator Trey Glenn said.
U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker and U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson asked the EPA in November to add the site to the list.
The EPA has said it restarted a treatment system Dec. 29 to reduce levels of trichloroethene inside the manufacturing building.
The agency said the Grenada listing is significant because it’s one of the first sites that EPA has listed based on contaminants intruding underground or into occupied spaces. The agency said that change made the Grenada site eligible for long-term funding.
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