Wednesday Zoom calls, Thursday meetings to explain next step in Jacksonville Superfund cleaup

Steve Patterson, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union
Updated ·2 min read
The polluted former Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. property at 1611 Talleyrand Ave. is scheduled for environmental cleanup work this year.
The polluted former Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. property at 1611 Talleyrand Ave. is scheduled for environmental cleanup work this year.

People planning next steps in a multimillion-dollar environmental cleanup at an industrial site in Jacksonville’s Talleyrand area have scheduled meetings online Wednesday and in-person Thursday to outline what’s happening next.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Multistate Environmental Response Trust have spent years planning work to handle pollution that made the former Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. property at 1611 Talleyrand Ave. unusable.

A major phase of the cleanup is scheduled to start this spring, so the EPA and the nonprofit Trust are asking people interested in that area to join Zoom calls happening Wednesday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m., then 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. to hear what’s coming up and ask questions about it.

Anyone can join the Wednesday sessions at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/9465848922 or enter https://tinyurl.com/jaxmeetings in your browser.

Use meeting ID 946 584 8922 and passcode B8U7EX.To join by phone, call (646) 876-9923 and use meeting ID 946 584 8922 and passcode 664564.

The former Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. property covers 31 acres on the St. Johns River near the Jacksonville Port Authority's Talleyrand facilities.
The former Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. property covers 31 acres on the St. Johns River near the Jacksonville Port Authority's Talleyrand facilities.

In-person “drop in” meetings are also planned Thursday from noon to 2 p.m. and 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Silkie’s Chicken & Champagne Bar, 1602 Walnut St.

Hard lesson: Mark Woods: Talleyrand land a reminder of the cost of righting wrongs

The Kerr-McGee site was added in 2010 to the EPA’s National Priorities List, the roll of polluted locations commonly called Superfund sites in need of money and action to restore their conditions.

The Kerr-McGee property was used to make or store chemicals, some of them potentially toxic, from the 1890s to the 1970s. Tests have found benzene, DDT, toxaphene, arsenic, lead and other pollutants at the site, which has been fenced off for decades and has undergone partial steps in the cleanup.

A building products company, CertainTeed Gypsum Product Group, committed in 2021 to make the property a logistics site for delivering gypsum, but no plan like that can go ahead without the pollution being cleaned up first.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Zoom calls Wednesday, meetings Thursday on Jacksonville Superfund cleanup