The longtime gas station site on South Columbia Drive, just outside Decatur’s southeast city limits, is in the middle of a petroleum remediation that should finish before Christmas.
Home to a gas station from the 1940s until 1999, the one-acre plot is getting its contaminated soil removed, to be replaced by clean fill, along with removal of contaminated ground water.
The work is being paid for by a $200,000 brownfields grant awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency to East Decatur Greenway, which owns the property.
The land will be turned into green space and a trailhead for 1.1-mile path for bikers, runners and pedestrians. Eventually that trail will connect with the crosswalk spanning East College Avenue that will be incorporated into the mixed-use development of the current MARTA parking lot. Until that happens, however, the trail will finish nearby on Derrydown Way.
East Decatur Greenway Director Michele Ritan said the trail might open by as early as April.
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