University to restore ash deposits on Range Road

Near an old shooting range on Range Road is school property where IU had deposited ash from its 10th Street steam plant until 1979 and stored emergency coal until 1998. The site has not yet contaminated surface or ground water and a plan to clean up the site hopes to ensure this does not happen in the future. \nAugust Mack Environmental, a consulting firm, began on-site work to restore the area this week. Kirk White, IU director of Community Relations, said work will last until late August -- to avoid disturbing move-in traffic -- and then will pick up again after the first week of the semester.\nBeginning in September and lasting four to six weeks, sixty truck loads per day will bring dirt to the site. White said they plan to cover the ash with a layer of clay to protect it from rain.\n"We want to make sure we don't have any runoff," said Bill Wieringa, project manager of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management's Voluntary Remediation Program, to which IU willingly applied earlier this summer to restore the site. The one-month period for community input yielded no comments on the project, Wieringa said.\n"The ash has been tested and the runoff is not environmentally damaging," White said. "The site had undergone two years of surface and groundwater sampling."\nIn addition to covering the ash with clay, the "restoration operation" will also collect drainage from the site and move it to existing ponds, creating wetlands that should help protect the site from flooding -- which would compromise the security of the buried ash.\n"There are still metals in the ash -- not harmful -- but we don't want the water infiltrating the covering," White said.\nHe added the University has no plans for developing the site at this time, though it is smoothing out some gradient there, which would make it more hospitable to development. \n"The whole area is being looked at for support and auxiliary buildings," he said. \nA secondary goal of the project is to restore positive aesthetics to the area.\n"The plant on 10th Street is a steam plant (that) heats in the winter and powers cooling towers in the summer," White said. "I'm sure the ash from there is disposed of properly. Ash is no longer stored on university property."\nThe work is projected to be finished by November.\n"The bottom line is, the University has a limited amount of real estate ... we've got to take care of what we've got," White said.