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Ameren Plans Cleanup of Downtown Columbia Site

Ameren Missouri is finishing up plans to clean up property it owns in downtown Columbia that is contaminated by gas plant tars, which can contain carcinogens.

The property is in the North Village Arts District, which is attracting commercial and residential development.

The Columbia Daily Tribunereports Ameren's fact sheet on the cleanup says it will remove about 36,000 tons of contaminated soil but the utility has not determined where the soil would be dumped.

A manufactured gas plant once sat on the site. The utility paid $2.5 million to clean up the land in 1994 but the work did not remove the contaminants.

The Missouri Department of Natural Resources will oversee the project.

Ameren plans to sell the land when the current project is finished.

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