Plans showing the CCI site today and where the pollination gardens will be placed.
What once was a site filled with thousands of barrels leaking hazardous material today is ready for new plants to take root.
And that’s going to happen from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 22, at the former Chemical Commodities EPA Superfund site at East Blake and South Keeler streets in Olathe.
The CCI Citizens Advisory Group, Inc., chaired by Glen Andrews and Ron McVeigh, is sponsoring the work effort. After a brief talk by Chip Taylor about pollination, the value of pollinators and the purpose of the four pollinator gardens, volunteers will be divided into four teams, one for each garden.
The Chemical Commodities site in 2001 prior to the start of cleanup efforts.
There will be a break at 10:45 when Jeff Field and Joe Flaherty of the EPA will present the history of the site and the remediation efforts that have restored the area to it can again be used by the public.
Haley and Aldrich will provide coffee, water, soda, juice and snacks throughout the day. There will be portable toilet facilities on the site.
Volunteers are advised to wear clothes appropriate for gardening and to bring gloves. People will be working on mulch covered beds and are likely to get dirty. Planting means getting on your knees so, if you have knee pads, it would be a good thing to bring them. A trowel would be handy too. Many of the holes will be dug by augers so the plantingshould go rapidly.This planting party should be both fun and instructive and you will be participating in the creation of a wonderful educational resource. This event also will mark the return of this once dangerous site to public use.
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