By ANDY GARDNER

MASSENA -- An Environmental Protection Agency official says the cleanup at the former General Motors site will likely conclude in next year.

That update came from Ann Kelly from the EPA’s Emergency and Remedial Project Response Division at a Thursday St. Lawrence River Valley Redevelopment Agency meeting in Massena.

“We’re looking at being completed in 2019 … for the GM proper remediation,” she said at the meeting, “depending on the level of contaminates, if we find any surprises.”

She said all of the underground areas and pits are cleaned, and contractors are now working toward the northwest corner of the site where they will eventually remediate a 10,000,000-gallon lagoon.

“Last year was a tough year because of all the rain. The sledges came out, the sampling that gets done after the sledges get removed, that didn’t get done last year,” Kelly cited as the reason for the work going into 2019.

Brendan Mullen from the RACER trust said the project has involved over 300,000 hours of work to date, which he said was done by local people, mostly Perras Excavating.

“We’re very proud of the work that’s been completed by local labor,” he told the RVRDA board.

Other work being done at the site, according to Kelly, includes putting in clean soil and grading it to prevent storm-water issues, and replacing an on-site groundwater treatment system.

In 2014, Kelly announced that their remediation uncovered underground pits of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) 40 feet down in concentrations 250 percent more than expected. That has since been removed, but pushed the project over budget, she said at the time.

The site is being cleaned up with funds put into the RACER Trust by General Motors after a 2007 bankruptcy court settlement. GM bought back all the properties they wanted to keep and the rest, 89 locations in 14 states, were given to RACER. Most of the cleanup money went to the Massena site, just over $121 million. There is a $68 million cushion fund to be shared among all the RACER sites.