Groundwater on less than an acre of land where a new amphitheater is in the works in Franklin is contaminated, and an energy company, the city and the state are working together to decide next steps.
Plans for a new park southwest of downtown Franklin that would include an amphitheater, playground, food truck alley and monuments have been in the works for at least a year.
Contaminated groundwater, 30 to 35 feet underground, is being tested and managed on the land on the northwest side of the 14-acre property that is owned by the city and set to house the amphitheater park.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThe contamination is run off from a cistern that holds the residuals from a former gas plant site that operated on the property at 249 W. Jefferson Street, directly north of the amphitheater property, from 1900 to 1930.
Indiana American Water owns the property that houses the cistern. The city owns the property directly south, which has been in the path of runoff from the cistern. Duke Energy began efforts to investigate contamination at the property in 1993. The gas plant company was a predecessor to Duke’s company, said Lew Middleton, a spokesman for Duke Energy.
Franklin bought the property affected by the contamination in May 2018 from Bastin-Logan Water Services, according to documents filed with the Indiana Department of Environmental Management last summer.
City officials were notified in 2017 that the site had contaminated soil which Duke was planning to remove, and that the electric company was monitoring the groundwater on the site, Franklin Mayor Steve Barnett said.
The affected property is in a floodway and redevelopment commissions in cities and town routinely buy similar property and develop it into useful land, which is the plan for the amphitheater site, Barnett said.
Jessica Keener, a senior remediation specialist with Duke Energy, presented plans to the city’s redevelopment commission Tuesday morning to ask for access of the site during testing and to lay out the company’s plans for the site, which includes asking city officials to consider passing a covenant that would limit how the land is used to help make sure humans do not come in contact with the contamination.
Duke officials want to cap the cistern in the spring or summer, then test the groundwater again beneath the property that is owned by Franklin. Duke’s proposal then calls for limiting the use of the site to make sure people will not come in direct contact with the contaminants, Keener said.
Duke Energy asked the Franklin Redevelopment Commission to consider restrictions that would limit the use of the property with language in the presentation that would prohibit the city from using the property for agriculture and residential, child care facilities and schools. Getting groundwater that humans or animals would consume would be prohibited too, which means no wells would be allowed to be placed on the property to make sure the groundwater stays out of reach of human consumption, Keener said.
“That is sort of an institutional control to make sure no one can access that groundwater,” Keener said.
The new park would be an approved use of the property, even with the restrictions Duke is asking for, Keener said.
Barnett agrees with Duke officials about capping the cistern to prevent any future leeching and that further testing of the groundwater on the city’s property should be conducted. However, the mayor wants to work with Duke and IDEM on what the next steps should be after the test results come in and are analyzed. Those next step could include cleanup, depending on the test results, Barnett said.
“We want responsible agencies to make sure responsible parties are held accountable,” he said.
Duke is open to discussions on what may be needed at the site and has already undertaken a lot of remediation work while working closely with IDEM to make sure there is no risk on the property, Keener and Middleton said.
Duke Energy began investigating possible contamination on the property in 1993, and entered into a volunteer remediation program with IDEM. Duke did an internal look at properties that operated before current environmental standards were in place, and sought to do its own investigations and cleanup efforts on properties with potential contamination, Keener said.
“We are trying to bring those up to the current environmental standards,” she said.
About a year and a half ago, Duke removed 1,800 tons of soil northwest of the actual amphitheater, but located on the city’s property, Barnett said
Indiana American Water now owns the property on Jefferson Street, where it houses an above ground tank which stores the city’s emergency drinking water.
The city’s daily drinking water is drawn from a well on the Johnson County/Shelby County line on the far east side of the city. The water stored in the tank on the Indiana American Water site is above ground and is only used in emergency situations.
Still, the water in the tank is not affected by the contamination from the cistern, Barnett said.
“This does not affect our drinking water at all,” Barnett said.
The cistern’s base is located about 50 feet underground, and the residuals from the cistern have flowed south and contaminated the ground water on the city’s property, said Casey McFall, Franklin’s EnviroForensics liaison. EnviroForensics is an environmental firm hired by Franklin which handles remediation, consultation and engineering on environmental issues. The city hired EnviroForensics to help city officials grapple with the environmental testing and cleanup throughout the city.
The groundwater that’s located beneath the city’s property tested positive for four volatile compounds. But a 30- to 35-foot layer of clay soil has prevented the vapors from rising up into the air around the property, Keener said.
The contaminated groundwater is so far underground that people do not have contact with it and are unable to touch or consume it, McFall said.
“It has been determined that there is no human risk,” he said.
Compounds that were found include Benzene, 1-Methylnaphthalene, 2-Methylnaphthalene and Naphthalene, McFall said.
Those compounds are volatile organic compounds, a subset of chemicals that can easily evaporate from liquid form and enter into the air, if not for the clay soil, McFall said. Compounds that have been found in other areas of Franklin are also volatile, but different types. Those compounds include PCE and TCE.
Duke conducted additional tests in 1995, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2015 and 2017 at the site and on the property directly south, which Franklin now owns.
The amphitheater project is still on schedule and is expected to open in fall 2021 or spring 2022, Barnett said. The property is currently zoned for recreational uses.
