$8.6 Million Funding Gap Threatens Remediation Timeline—The Community Redevelopment Agency received a long-awaited update Monday on the status of the American Creosote Works Superfund site—and the news was a mixed bag. While the EPA says residential soil cleanup could begin as early as this summer, an $8.6 million funding gap in Phase 1 and an entirely unfunded Phase 2 have the project’s future clouded in uncertainty.
CRA Director Victoria D’Angelo walked the board through a timeline stretching back nearly two decades, from the site’s first appearance in the 2007 Westside CRA plan to the updated 2025 redevelopment vision shaped by extensive community input from the Sanders Beach neighborhood. That community has been clear about what it wants: a natural park with walking paths, shade trees, potential market space for pop-up events, and possibly an amphitheater built into the remediation cap’s hillside.
But the heart of Monday’s discussion was a familiar tension: who controls what and why isn’t more happening faster at a site that has carried a Superfund designation since 1982.
The Money Problem
D’Angelo laid out the division of authority plainly. The EPA controls the remediation — its design, timeline, and funding. The city controls zoning, any future land acquisition, and eventual park development. The problem is that nothing the city wants to do can happen until the EPA finishes its work.
- And the EPA’s work faces a significant budget shortfall.
Phase 1, which includes residential yard cleanup, installation of an underground barrier wall, soil capping, and site backfill, is “predominantly funded,” D’Angelo said, but carries an $8.6 million gap. Phase 2: The thermal extraction process needed to loosen and remove thick, viscous creosote from groundwater is currently unfunded.
- Mayor D.C. Reeves told the board he had recently been in Washington lobbying for the funding and that his team had secured letters of support from Senators Ashley Moody and Rick Scott. A third follow-up meeting with EPA leadership is being scheduled.
Where Did the $100,000 Go?
Councilmember Jennifer Brahier pressed D’Angelo on the $100,000 the CRA allocated in 2022, noting that roughly 60 percent of it — about $60,000 — has been spent on appraisals, title work, and site condition reviews rather than on actual property acquisition.
- “When we approved the $100,000, we were approving it for actual acquisition, which was what we thought we were doing, I believe,” Brahier said. “And so to hear that 60% of it is gone with nothing in the works for acquisition — it’s just concerned.”
D’Angelo acknowledged that conditions had changed since 2022, when the assumption was that EPA remediation was moving forward on schedule. Delays and the newly revealed budget shortfall have altered the landscape.
- The property itself is divided among six private owners, including a railway, and Environmental Coordinator Katherine Alexander told the board that, while EPA has maintained contact with those owners regarding site access, she was uncertain whether formal acquisition conversations had taken place.
The Liability Question
Mayor Reeves raised the complexity of acquiring contaminated property, noting early concerns about what liability the city might assume as an owner. Brahier pushed back, saying the EPA has indicated that ownership would not shift remediation responsibility or impose undue liability on the city.
- Reeves didn’t disagree but suggested the administration’s bandwidth has been focused on the more immediate problem — closing the $8.6 million gap, without which no remediation moves forward at all. “Nothing’s going to happen if we don’t get this $8.6 million delta taken care of.”
A Glimmer of Progress on the Dirt
One potentially significant development emerged from EPA Remedial Project Manager Peter Thorpe, who joined the meeting remotely. Thorpe told the board that Escambia County’s landfill has agreed — pending final approval — to accept contaminated residential soil as daily cover, rather than having it deposited on-site as part of the cap.
That change could meaningfully reduce the height and footprint of the containment cap, which, under earlier estimates, would have risen by more than 20 feet on the western portion of the site. The community had already weighed in on the cap’s design, voting overwhelmingly for a more natural, undulating landscape over the original flat monolith design proposed in early plans.
The Timeline — If Everything Goes Right
Thorpe outlined an optimistic but conditional timeline for Phase 1:
- Contractors will walk the neighborhood next week.
- The Army Corps of Engineers will accept bids in March and,
- Barring protests, award a contract in May.
- After review of health, safety, and work plans, actual residential cleanup could begin in June or July, with an estimated six months to complete.
- Once the residential work is underway, the remaining Phase 1 components — the barrier wall, soil capping, and backfill — would begin.
Thorpe offered some reassurance that Phase 1 can proceed independently of Phase 2. The site could be capped, fenced, and converted to park use even without the thermal extraction. The caveat: a portion of the site would eventually need to be fenced off again for roughly a year when Phase 2 funding materializes.
- “I don’t think it’s a game stopper,” Thorpe said. “It’s just something that we’ll have to come back and treat in the future.”
The CRA’s recommendation for now: continue lobbying Washington for the funding, continue whatever due diligence can be done in the interim, and further assess the legal parameters around acquisition.
- For the Sanders Beach community, which has waited more than four decades for this contamination to be addressed, Monday’s update offered a familiar formula — some progress, significant obstacles, and a timeline that remains stubbornly dependent on forces beyond Pensacola’s control.
