Environmental Assessment & Remediation (EAR)

The Environmental Assessment and Remediation (EAR) program strives to study, advise and educate all persons on soil, surface water and groundwater quality and quantity issues and policies that will best protect the environment for the citizens and the interests of their communities.

Proje​cts

This program provides technical and administrative support for the Gilbert-Mosley and North Industrial Corridor groundwater projects. Staff operate the Certificate and Release (C&R) of Environmental Liability Program. Applications can be found under Environmental Documents.

The program also investigates soil and groundwater contamination on parcels involved in redevelopment projects or under consideration for purchase by the City, and coordinates routine monitoring of remediate pollution sites.​

Gilbert-Mosley Project

"The Gilbert & Mosley Project is considered to be one of the most innovative public-private partnerships ever created to solve the complex environmental problem of groundwater contamination. This project has earned the City of Wichita national recognition for its development to avoid Superfund intervention and the impacts upon public health, environmental risks and the local economy."

Hist​ory

In 1991, routine testing of the groundwater detected contamination in the vicinity of downtown Wichita. The 2600-acre area discovered was dubbed the "Gilbert-Mosley Site" as these were the streets that crossed at the point of the first discovery of the contamination. Since then, investigations have broadened the site boundary to include a total of approximately 3850 acres.

Tod​​ay

The City of Wichita's Gilbert and Mosley Project includes the operation of a groundwater treatment system, an environmental education building, a plaza area, and several site improvement items in Herman Hill Park. The groundwater treatment system remediates large volumes of groundwater that have been contaminated by various chlorinated solvents (PCE, TCE, DCE, and VC), and the remediation system includes the operation of 10 extraction wells, 5.5 miles of piping, and a hydraulic-venturi air stripper treatment system. The treatment system has been in continuous operations since December 2002, and approximately 1 million gallons of groundwater are treated each day.

North Industrial Corridor

The 29th and Mead site was declared a Superfund site in February 1990. In July 1994 the City of Wichita petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remove the 29th and Mead Site from the National Priorities List (NPL) in order to implement a local/state/federal cooperative partnership modeled after the successful strategy employed at the Gilbert-Mosley Site in Wichita, Kansas. This approach utilizes a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district implemented within the site boundaries to generate finances to help fund the investigation and remediation.

On November 14, 1995, the City of Wichita signed a Settlement Agreement with the State of Kansas under which the City agreed to assume responsibility for investigation and developing a cleanup strategy for the NIC Site, if the site was removed from the NPL.

On April 29, 1996, the 29th and Mead site was deleted from the NPL allowing the creation of the North Industrial Corridor site and the TIF district.