Engeman was among the speakers at a Monday night town meeting sponsored by
the Iowa City chapter of the Sierra Club to discuss the EPA's progress in
assessing the site and developing a cleanup plan.

                  The Associated Press State & Local Wire

                    October 21, 2003, Tuesday

 HEADLINE: MidAmerican Energy ordered to move contaminated soil

 DATELINE: IOWA CITY, Iowa

 Under a new order from the Environmental Protection Agency, MidAmerican
 Energy will begin removing contaminated soil in December from an area
 adjacent to the Iowa-Illinois Manor apartment building.

 Long before the 54-unit apartment complex was built in 1983, the site was
 used for as many as 80 years by the now-defunct Iowa City Light & Power
 Co. to extract gas from coal by roasting it, a process that generated tons
 of coal tar and other toxic waste.

 "A monitoring well in the area between the building and Burlington Street
 has shown very heavy contamination there," said Diane Engeman, a remedial
 project manager for the Superfund Division of EPA's Region VII office in
 Kansas City.

 "The city is getting ready to expand and replace the Burlington Street
 bridge, work which will involve utility relocations and excavation work in
 that area. We thought it was prudent to get as much (soil) out of the way
 as we can to minimize exposure."

 Workers outfitted in hazardous material protective gear will remove dirt
 along an area immediately north of the apartment building on the southeast
 corner of Burlington and Van Buren streets.

 That work will be completed during the University of Iowa's winter break,
 when traffic is at a minimum. Soils laced with petroleum byproducts will
 be burned before being buried at a landfill.

 In February 2002, the EPA acknowledged that cancer-causing coal tar
 residues and other toxic substances are polluting the soil and ground
 water beneath the apartment and are also polluting the adjacent Ralston
 Creek.

 Engeman also said crews are in Iowa City this week conducting groundwater
 monitoring to determine the extent of the site's pollution plume.

 Engeman was among the speakers at a Monday night town meeting sponsored by
 the Iowa City chapter of the Sierra Club to discuss the EPA's progress in
 assessing the site and developing a cleanup plan.

 About 40 people attended the forum at the Iowa City Public Library,
 including nine residents of the apartment building.

 After four years of soil, air and water-quality monitoring, the EPA
 contends the site, if left undisturbed, poses no health risks to the
 approximately 150 residents of the apartments, a population of highly
 transient University of Iowa students.

 MidAmerican assumed legal responsibility for the 1.6-acre site in 1995, 12
 years after the apartment building was built. The plant was on property
 once owned by Iowa-Illinois Gas & Electric Co., which merged with Midwest
 Power and Gas of Des Moines to create Mid-American in 1995.

 MidAmerican's recent site characterization report to the EPA claims that
 ongoing groundwater pollution poses no health threat, as the tainted water
 is not a source of drinking water.

 Michelle Wei, the utility's manager of remediation and response, confirmed
 Monday that the company spent $471,932 in 2002 investigating the site.

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