EPA says barge canal needs repairs

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The Environmental Protection Agency says repairs are needed at a Superfund pollution site on Burlington’s Lake Champlain waterfront.

The EPA says oil and coal tar are leaking at the Pine Street Barge Canal just south of downtown Burlington.

That’s the site of an old coal gasification plant that operated in the first half of the 20th century. Waste from the plant was disposed of in the area and eventually leaked into the canal, which flows into Burlington Harbor.

The EPA decided to put a cap over the bed of the canal to trap the wastes there and keep them from leaking into the lake.

The agency says it’s discovered that some portions of that cap were leaking. Oily sheens and tar bubbles have been discovered in a 450-foot-long stretch of the canal.

Authorities have placed absorbent booms across the mouth of the canal to prevent the pollution from flowing into Lake Champlain.

Plans call for the cap to be replaced in areas where it’s leaking. Contamination that leaks will be captured and trucked to a treatment facility.

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