Crews Finish ‘Superfund to Solar’ Project
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowA $30 million solar installation on a former Superfund site in Marion County is complete. Indianapolis-based August Mack Environmental Inc., which has been working to remediate the former Reilly Tar & Chemical property since the late 1990s, says the 10.86 Megawatt Maywood Solar Farm project wrapped up in six months. July 11, 2014
News Release
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – August Mack Environmental, Inc. (August Mack), a full-service environmental, health and safety consulting firm, is pleased to announce our involvement in the development of the United States first utility-scale solar farm on a former Superfund site. August Mack joined Hanwha Q CELLS USA (HQC) as well as eight other organizations including the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), Vertellus Specialties, Inc., Solar Flex, Indianapolis Power and Light, Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), URS Corporation, US Utilities, and PNC Bank, to complete the project in a compressed span of six months. Dubbed the Maywood Solar Farm, the 10.86 Megawatt farm sits on 43 acres at the former Reilly Tar & Chemical site in Indianapolis, Indiana.
August Mack's involvement with the site stems back to 1999, when they were contracted to clean-up the site, which included placement of a permeable soil cover as well as soil vapor and groundwater extraction systems. As a result of their familiarity with this site coupled with overall environmental and engineering expertise, August Mack was contacted by HQC in early 2013 as they began development of the closed Superfund site.
August Mack assisted HQC with U.S. EPA negotiations and IDEM negotiations, permitting, documenting current site conditions, and developing the civil design for the site. This design included pile foundations that would provide stability for the solar panels while minimizing disturbance to the in-place liner and underlying soils. Design services included the site grading plan, storm water controls, and identification of existing utilities and buildings that would ultimately be removed from the site. August Mack also provided health and safety and civil construction oversight during the field portion of the project, completed by Environmental Field Services, Inc. (EFS), a subsidiary of August Mack.
Heading this project for August Mack was Senior Technical Engineer, Mr. Tim Dewitt, PE. According to Geoffrey Underwood, Utility Scale Developer with HQC “Quite plainly, the Maywood Solar project would not have succeeded without August Mack or without Tim Dewitt. Tim became our design contact early in the critical stages of the project and delivered exemplary guidance and advice to HQC in an unfamiliar regulatory environment and in a compressed timeframe. As the project progressed, August Mack continued to deliver key insights on project management expertly paired with a high level of technical acumen. In my experience, I have found very few professionals with the ability to demonstrate exemplary competence in both their professional field as well as in managing the working landscape, a virtual prerequisite in the solar field which intersects multiple regulatory processes. All the more amazing in our view, August Mack was able to seamlessly integrate in the project and address the significant, cross-boundary issues inherent in solar development.”
This is a “significant milestone for the solar industry as a whole in overcoming the legal, financial, regulatory and construction hurdles to create a virtuous cycle, and develop a higher use for brownfield, idle land,” says HQC CEO, Charles Kim. (EPA, 2014)
August Mack Environmental, Inc. specializes in environmental, health and safety; environmental due diligence; and investigation/remediation/closure services to the industrial, legal, financial and government sectors throughout North America. For more information on the company's products and services, call 317.916.8000 or visit www.augustmack.com.
August Mack and Tim Dewitt continue to champion for this historical environmental first in the form of speaking engagements, newsletter articles, as well as webinar services provided by August Mack.
Source: August Mack Environmental Inc.