“America faces serious environmental and economic challenges caused by our over reliance on fossil fuels,” Judith A. Enck, EPA regional administrator, said in a statement. “Part of the solution is to use previously contaminated land to generate clean energy. This strategy will revitalize communities, cut air pollution and create new jobs.”
So is this any place to build a solar power plant? The EPA thinks it might be. The agency is already working on cleaning up the groundwater at the Superfund site and putting a cap over it. “Because the site will be relatively level with sparse vegetation once the cap is installed, it may be suitable for renewable energy,” the agency said. .... The presence of a renewable energy facility will greatly enhance the development potential of the surrounding area.”
The assessment of Price’s potential for a solar-power installation is part of the EPA’s “RE-Powering America’s Land” initiative. The agency is spending $1 million to evaluate 26 sites around the country, working with clean-power experts from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Sites in the RE-Powering project were selected based on applications submitted by states, tribes, regional governments and communities earlier this year. The full list of sites that will be studied and links to one-page PDFs describing each site are available through the EPA.
Read on at: http://www.earthtechling.com/2011/11/superfund-to-solar-epa-thinks-maybe-so/