WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — A city-owned property that is the current site of an environmental investigation will get another round of soil testing.
Tuesday night the Wausau City Council heard from City Public Works Director Eric Lindman regarding a budget modification for additional environmental testing at 1300 Cleveland Avenue. The city-owned property is currently the subject of an environmental investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, environmental consultant GEI, and the City.
The first round of soil testing taken at the site was done in October of 2020 with results having been presented to the Council at a Committee of the Whole meeting in February of 2021. Following that Committee of the Whole meeting, those working on the environmental investigation created a site work plan that recommended more soil testing in June.
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Lindman gave a brief background on the new soil testing to the Council, including why more testing is being recommended by GEI and the DNR. “From the original test that were taken, we’re trying to delineate those areas where we had found exceedances. And so we have quite a few more holes that we’re putting in the ground, a lot more soil testing for this is which is the reason for the cost of this.”
The additional soil tests will cost $98,500, which is being budgeted out of the City’s environmental fund that was originally set aside for the Holtz-Krause project but never used. The cost of the additional testing did pass unanimously in the City’s Finance Committee meeting as the fund can sustain the payment.
Members of the council were mostly in favor of the budget modification but did have some questions regarding the property and the investigation. District 1 Alder Pat Peckham asked if the City had looked into holding former owners of the property liable for any remediation costs. Lindman says the possibility is still there but that at this time it wasn’t likely.
“I think there’s always a potential there. My conversations with Matt Thompson of the DNR has been that based on the results that we have so far, it’s really categorized as historic fill. And not necessarily related back to the operations that were there.
“Now, this next round of testing might change that. I mean we might find something different. But that’s his initial reaction along with his team at this point. But again we’re going to do another round of quite robust testing so we may have some other results.”
The Council also had some short discussions regarding the potential future of the property. Industrial plant 3M has expressed interest in about a quarter of the property for potential expansion of its location off of Sherman St. Residents of the area would like to see affordable housing on the site once it has gone through the remediation process. The site has also been recommended for additional space needed by the City’s Public Works Department in the near future.
Following about 12 minutes of discussion the Council voted unanimously to approve the budget modification for additional soil testing. The samples will be conducted by environmental consultant GEI in late July with a final analysis expected at the end of August. Final results will then be sent off to the DNR for their review to determine the next steps needed for the site in the environmental investigation.
