LANSING - The Michigan Office of Special Environmental Projects is getting out its brooms to clean up a contaminated site.
The effort is part of the environmental office’s project to clean up 17 newly discovered contaminated sites in Michigan.
Lansing’s Brownfield Redevelopment Board approved Tuesday at its annual meeting roughly $1.9 million in state funds so that the environmental office could clean up the sites.
The State Sites Cleanup Program, which began in 1996 after receiving $30 million from the state Legislature, has been cleaning up 142 state sites.
“It’s very difficult for us as a state entity to require other people to clean up their sites when we weren’t cleaning up ours,” said Keith Harrison, director of the environmental office. “That is the push behind this. We are going to take care of the sites we contaminated.”
All 17 of the new sites are underground storage tanks that were discovered to be leaking petroleum after the tanks were removed. One of the contaminated sites is located in Lansing at 715 W. Willow St.
Lansing resident Alfredo Serna said he hasn’t heard about the contamination, but believes the program is necessary.
“We haven’t had any problems at all with anything, but any money they put in the community is fine with me,” he said.
So far the program has been able to fund all eligible sites. The program pursues the most immediate health hazards first, and whatever money is left over is then used to fund remaining sites, Harrison said.
“There is a strong intent to completely clean up our sites,” he said. “That is what the whole program is about.
“We have been making a lot of headway.”
Harrison said he believes the newly discovered 17 sites will be the last of historical sites that need funding through the state’s site clean up program.
“What might happen is a new underground storage tank may leak or a spill,” he said. “There can be a whole lot of things, but then we are not dealing with historic sites.”
Ken Silfven, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, which oversees the environmental office, said the program has been very successful.
“There have been 38 site closures and I believe 133 are under contract,” he said. “We are getting those sites squared away as well.”
Staff writer Drew M. Harmon contributed to this report.
