PECO will soon begin what it expects to be the final phase of a multimillion-dollar cleanup project for a former manufactured gas plant in Bristol Borough.
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Ted Dorand, PECO’s external affairs manager, told Bristol Borough Council Monday evening that the company anticipates spending approximately $37 million total on the remediation project by the time it concludes.
The utility has already invested about $23 million in cleanup efforts through last August.
“We are about to begin what we believe will be the last phase of this project, which is to initiate cleanup for several off site properties located to the east and south of the original site,” Dorand said.
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The manufactured gas plant was located at Mifflin and Linden streets in the borough.
Dorand explained that manufactured gas plant facilities operated at the turn of the 20th century to manufacture natural gas for street lights and to provide fuel to homes and businesses.
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“The residue that they left behind was a solid material, much like a tar like substance that adhered to the soil,” Dorand said.
PECO made a voluntary commitment to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection in the early 2000s to clean up manufactured gas plants the company had acquired over time. The Bristol Borough remediation project began in 2007.
The cleanup work has progressed through several phases over the years.
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Dorand said the company started by working on an electric substation at Mifflin and Linden streets, which was demolished as part of the cleanup process that began in 2010.
In 2015, PECO moved across the street to work on the Goodwill Hose Fire Company site where byproducts from the manufactured gas plant had been left behind.
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The company has continued moving to adjacent properties since that time, Dorand said.
The regional utility company is planning to hold a public open house on Sept. 17 at 6 p.m. at the Goodwill Hose Fire Company to discuss the upcoming work. PECO will have a team available to answer questions and provide information about the intended work schedule and additional details.
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“We’ll give everyone that attends the opportunity to learn more about the work that we intend to do to continue on and hopefully close out the soil remediation project,” Dorand said.
The company plans to send letters to neighborhoods surrounding the area to inform residents about the open house.
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Borough Engineer Kurt Schroeder said the borough hopes to coordinate with PECO’s work to implement a bioswale in the wooded area where the project extends.
“We’re hopeful that DEP views that as meeting or meeting a substantial amount of the pollution reduction plan,” Schroeder said.
Councilmember Lou Quattrocchi said PECO has been willing to work with the borough.
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“They’ve been very good for the past few years. I mean very attentive to everything,” Quattrocchi said. “They were really good at trying to dovetail that project in so we don’t spend the money twice on doing the same thing.”
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