Some visitors from overseas are taking an interest in the former Erie Coke property, with goals of cleaning up the contaminated site.
A1 Evolution is an Australian chemical manufacturing company, and on Oct. 15, some representatives came to Erie, interested in seeing the former coke plant.
The company has a case study detailing a plan to remediate the property, but right now, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Erie Port Authority aren’t in that phase of the process.
A DEP official said that they’ve completed the most recent phase of their site investigation and anticipate a final report to be out in the coming months, which will determine the next steps in the remediation process.
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“Now, the value that we bring to the table is that we can achieve the result of full remediation, potentially to agriculture, within seven years,” said Raife Campbell, the head of operations for A1 Evolution.
“We’re not there yet at all,” said Julie Slomski, the executive director of the Erie Port Authority. “Again, DEP is still testing it and working again with our partner, the Erie County Redevelopment Authority. When there is that time for remediation, it will be a public process, whether it’s an RFP process or a bid process…”
The DEP said that the timing for remediation is still unknown and that they are still relatively early in the process.