Clean-up continues at the Kerr-McGee Site

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Clean-up continued at the Kerr McGee site and the surrounding neighborhood, but many of the people in that neighborhood still had concerns.

The EPA started working with Kerr-McGee doing clean-up work in the late 90’s, while the plant was still operating.

Then, there was a period of time during the company’s bankruptcy where nothing was being done.

In 2011, the clean-up work started again when Multistate Trust came to town.

They’ve worked here ever since and even though they said they’re making good progress, the finish line is being measured in years, not weeks or months.

“I walked many days in the rain breathing creosote and inhaling it. I have a serious sinus problem right now, because of exposure to creosote, but at the time, I didn’t know,” says Columbus resident Rev. James E. Samuel.

Samuel was born and raised in Columbus. He went to Hunt High School, not far from the Kerr-McGee site.

He’s one of many who were impacted by the site’s unknown poison at the time and still sees its impacts today, decades later.

That’s why he’s serving as a voice for his community during the clean-up process.

“I’m here trying to help them put together a package that will satisfy the community, help them achieve their mission goals, Amen, and help change or turn around the negative side of what Kerr-McGee left behind.”

Lauri Gorton is the director of environmental programs for the Multistate Trust. She’s responsible for work that’s being done here, at the Kerr-McGee site.

The company’s purpose is to clean up the site and to make sure impacted areas are safe and healthy and make the area suitable for future use.

“Over 600 samples in the 2016-2017 time frame. Over 200 of them out in the neighborhood to make sure that the residents were not being exposed to anything and then just recently, we followed up in a couple of areas here.”

So far, eight residential properties have been identified that had contamination above the cleanup level.

There’s also still some creosote contamination in the storm drainage ditches, not including two of those that have been cleaned.

“14th Avenue and Seventh Avenue. There’s one section of ditch that we need to complete and then we did find a little bit of surface soil contamination and some properties on the east side of the site along the ditch and a few on the west side across the street from the property and we sent letters out to those residents, letting them know that their yards are eligible for cleanup.”

Gorton said the overall clean-up process will take several years.

“The Pine Yard is a good example. It will take, probably by the time we are done, it will have taken seven or eight months, partially, because it rained so much, a lot of the work that we do is weather dependent, that we’re now identifying the kinds of cleanup that we’re going to do on all the other parts of the property and the process will take a couple of years to get approved designed and built.”

“The little part we’re trying to do now will redevelop this land into something that’s prosperous or profitable for all of the people that still live over here and we’re not talking about a paycheck. We’re talking about trying to bring some facilities in that will serve the community.”

Gorton said she wants residents to know that their opinions matter to them and the group wants to know what their interests are and what their thoughts will be when the clean-up is finally done.

EPA and DEQ also played a large role in this clean-up and have to approve plans throughout the process.

For more information on the cleanup company, click here.