Manufactured Gas Plant Remediation

Book excerpt: The assessment, remediation, and redevelopment of manufactured gas plant (MGP) sites pose a significant technical and financial challenge to successor property owners, including municipalities and other public entities undertaking brownfields revitalization, and to their consulting environmental engineers. Due to the toxicity of many coal tar constituents, sites contaminated as a result of gasworks operations pose a significant threat to public health. This book will discuss the history of the manufactured gas industry in Massachusetts (the largest in the US), as well as the toxicity of gasworks waste products, technical challenges in the cleanup process, and the process for site cleanups.