The Environmental Protection Agency has begun work to clean up the former Peninsula Gas Company site, removing hazardous coal tar material that accumulated over decades of industrial operations.
The coal tar residue contains hydrocarbon compounds similar to petroleum products. A type of waste material that poses serious environmental risks if it contaminates groundwater.
The site once provided fuel to heat homes, businesses and the mining industry’s offices. Peninsula Gas Company transitioned the site from town gas, a low oxygen burning coal fuel, to natural gas operations after 1946. When the site used town gas, it was what’s known as a manufactured gas plant, one of many throughout the Midwest operating during the 20th century.
“When this was able to become open and accessible, that’s why we’ve started this cleanup,” said Brian Kelly, on-scene coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency.
Access to the coal tar materials came only recently. After Peninsula Gas Company dissolved in 2021, new property owners demolished buildings on the site. The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy then conducted survey work that identified the contaminated area and requested EPA assistance.
“EGLE had come out and done some more survey work, identified this area where the source material is, and then asked for EPA’s assistance in removing it,” Kelly said. “So the planning for this cleanup started about last year.”
The project is supported through the EPA’s removal program, which handles smaller, less complicated cleanup projects as part of the broader Superfund effort across the nation. Kelly anticipates this will be the final action needed.
“We’re going to be able to dig this material out, and then there won’t be any additional cleanups,” he said.
The removal program has a track record in the region. About 10 years ago, it cleaned up a coal tar site in Ripley. The EPA has also remediated numerous former mining operations, stamp mills and other industrial sites throughout the Keweenaw Peninsula.
Work at the former Peninsula Gas Company site is expected to finish by summer. The EPA will monitor air quality throughout the duration of the project.
For more information, visit the EPA website.
