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Site Southwest of the Intersection of Third Street and Burleigh Street: The South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has authorized cleanup work to begin on the Yankton Area Progressive Growth owned Brownfields site east of the Eisenbraun Survey Division Building during the week of October 17th. The initial cleanup should not take longer than a couple of weeks. Follow-up testing will determine if further cleanup activities will be necessary. The staff at the DENR has been extremely helpful in facilitating the use of state managed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funds for this site subsequent to the City being turned down in the application process for direct federal funds. The estimated total cost for this project is $200,000. If members of the Commission or the public have questions about the cleanup activities being conducted at the site southwest of the intersection of Third Street and Burleigh Street they should feel free to contact the City's Brownfields Project Manager, Dave Mingo, at 668-5252, or Kim McIntosh, Environmental Senior Scientist for the DENR at (605) 773-3296.

Former Jensen Site: As you know, the city has received direct EPA funding for the cleanup of the former Jensen site. Physical work on this site will not begin until next year. The project is reaching the end of the mitigation regulatory review process. In brief, this is the process where EPA and DENR determine the steps that will be used to conduct the project. DENR has graciously agreed to take the lead on the design part of the project. This includes paying for the engineering and design work over and above the cleanup grant funds. This could save the city tens of thousands of dollars if there is an unexpected find on the site. DENR staff has been in the middle of negotiations with two different branches of the EPA to clarify the parameters for the remediation effort. This has been no small task and we owe the DENR staff our sincere thanks for making this project happen. DENR and their consultant are now at the point where they can begin design of the project. This includes additional testing and calculations of how much material needs to be removed / replaced and what needs to be done with it. We are hopeful that all of the material can be handled locally (Yankton and Vermillion) to help keep costs down. This is also estimated to be a $200,000 project.

Although the physical work has not commenced, the projects have been moving along through the design and engineering process quite well considering all factors involved.