The Environmental Protection Agency will answer questions about the cleanup of the Reilly Tar Superfund site in West Indianapolis during an open house Sept. 24.
The event will take place from 5-7 p.m. at the Reilly Tar building community room, 1500 S. Tibbs Ave.
Groundwater monitors at and near the site have detected the cancer-causing chemical benzene and the chemicals ammonia and pyridines along South Tibbs Avenue near the site.
The chemicals come from several polluting businesses that have operated on the site, including a coal tar refinery, a wood treatment facility and, most recently, a chemical plant that operated there until April 2024.
The EPA plans to remove the chemicals through a process called air sparging, which will inject air into the ground below the water table to flush the chemicals up through the groundwater as air bubbles. The bubbles will then be caught by a vapor extraction system.
In addition to air sparging, the EPA will also install monitoring wells at four locations near the site.
For more information, check out the EPA’s Reilly Tar Superfund site page.
Mirror Indy, a nonprofit newsroom, is funded through grants and donations from individuals, foundations and organizations.
Mirror Indy reporter Enrique Saenz covers west Indianapolis. Contact him at 317-983-4203 or enrique.saenz@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on Bluesky at @enriquesaenz.bsky.social.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
