Cleanup of the former St. Marks Refinery is now underway.
Thursday marked the start of the former St. Marks Refinery clean-up project. The site was abandoned in 2003 when the cancerous chemical dioxin was found. Now, a little over a decade later, St. Marks is entering its final step of the clean-up process. The City of Tallahassee and its Community Redevelopment Agency are giving St. Marks $200,000 to fund the project.
Cynthia Barber directs Tallahassee’s Environmental Policy and Energy Resources Department, and believes Tallahassee will benefit from the project.
“For us we saw it as an opportunity to do a regional project, one that would have benefits on the citizens of Tallahassee,” says Barber.
After the one-year project is complete the city will start to build a planned development aimed at attracting new industries to the area. St. Marks City Manager Zoe Mansfield believes this land can become a hot spot for business once again.
“With this collective effort we will accomplish our plans to attract the commercial business and industry,” says Mansfield.
St. Marks is pairing its Tallahassee contribution with a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The cleaning process is expected to be complete in 2015.
