Residential street, park, water tower properties slated for clean-up

Thousands of tons of dirt will be removed from under and around two Franklin homes and a park in order to get rid of contaminated soil deep under the ground.

Duke Energy is cleaning up the land around two homes, located at 201 and 205 S. Home Avenue, and in Province Park. The land used to be the site of a manufactured gas plant, where coal was used to produce gas for lighting homes and businesses as early as the 1870s. As part of that process, tar is produced and was stored in wells buried deep underground. But often, when those plants closed, the tar was not removed and was left underground and eventually seeps out and contaminates the soil

along with any unburned coal that is sometimes left, said Pat McKee, Duke Energy project manager.

In order to remove all the contamination found in testing by the utility, the clean-up will require the removal of 9,000 tons of dirt and to dig 18 feet deep, he said.

See Saturday's Daily Journal for more information.