[CPEO-BIF] "How Macon [Georgia] cleaned up contaminated land to make room for new Mercer medical school"

[Lenny Siegel <Lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

How Macon cleaned up contaminated land to make room for new Mercer medical school 

By Margaret Walker 
Macon Telegraph (GA)
November 26, 2025

The site on Riverside Drive where Mercer University plans to build its new medical school went undeveloped for decades. Why has it sat idle for so long, and why is construction advancing now? 

The site, 815 Riverside Drive, was once a manufactured gas plant in the early 20th century, leaving behind contaminants including lead, arsenic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, according to a cleanup plan, called a Voluntary Investigation and Remediation Plan that was prepared for Macon-Bibb County.

In order to bring any new development to the property, the county had to clean the contamination up in order to protect public health and the environment. In this case, the process took nearly two decades. The lands that previously saw industrial use and now have potential contaminants are called “brownfield” properties.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.macon.com/news/environment/article313108232.html

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org
Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)




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