The idea of developing the Port Authority’s Erie Coke site into a naval ship building facility is gaining traction.

It all started with an op-ed in the Erie Times News, from a North East native serving in the Navy.

If you thought building navy ships on the Erie Coke site that still needs serious soil remediation seemed unrealistic, think again.

Melanie Brewer, the District Director for U.S. Representative Mike Kelly said it’s getting real.

“Look this is going to be a great thing for Erie or it could be a great thing for Erie if we could make it happen and we’ve read every person into the room. Everybody’s starting to be this could be great 1,000 jobs, 2.7 ancillary jobs for every one of those so, it could be a really impactful thing to our community,” said Brewer.

The day after will Lewis’ op-ed piece showed up in print, U.S. Defense officials reached out to Congressman Kelly’s office to show they are listening.

Lewis created LLC, “Gem City Shipbuilding” to further investigate if Erie might help the navy with a major shipbuilding shortage just documented CBS 60 minutes.

The Erie Western Pennsylvania Port Authority owns the Erie Coke site. Their comprehensive plan on the way shows a community desire for a mixed use. But remediation is top priority.

According to Julie Slomski of the Erie Western Pennsylvania Port Authority, “The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is still working on sampling and coming out here, now that we have our snow gone, we hope they’ll be out in the next couple of months to continue their sampling and monitoring of the site, and then we look forward to their report hopefully toward the end of the year to be able to start talking remediation and next steps from there.”

Brewer thinks federal support through the navy shipbuilding ideas could speed the cleanup.

“Because right now the site is sitting with that Benzene and we just need to get it remediated.”

Although Will Lewis is a naval officer, he makes it clear that his opinion piece on shipbuilding here reflects his personal opinion.

You can learn more about the idea when Melanie Brewer joins Lisa Adams this weekend on The Insider.