DECATUR — The federal government is going to spend $500,000 to list and assess multiple “brownfield” sites in Decatur that are going to be in need of clean-up before they can be redeveloped. The targeted areas are described as the Jasper Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive corridors in the city.
Among “priority sites” in need of examination here are the 211⁄2-acre former Prairie Farms food plant and the nine-acre former Tire One fuel transfer station and distribution center. The sites of three former gas stations are also included. The money for Decatur was one of 10 grants awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency and announced in a news release from U.
S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, and U.
S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Chicago.
Duckworth is chair of the Senate Environmental Justice Caucus and Durbin is a member of it. The senators said the money is part of the EPA’s Brownfields Program and is designed to target disadvantaged communities that are “marginalized and overburdened by pollution and under investment." Decatur’s money will be spent on updating and maintaining an inventory of brownfield sites where redevelopment is compromised by the presence of hazardous materials and substances.
And some of the cash will also pay for 16 individual site assessments along with developing reuse plans while informing the public of what’s going on and seeking public comment. Durbin said disused and contaminated sites have to be cleaned up to stop them from .