Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette. On Wednesday, the EPA began cleanup efforts of coal tar waste on the property the Laurium DPW has occupied since Feb. 2025.

LAURIUM – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began cleaning up hazardous coal tar waste at a facility the Laurium Department of Public Works has occupied since a fired destroyed their previous garage in February, 2025. The work began on Wednesday. Laurium Village Manager Ian Lewis said the EPA estimates the project will continue for the next six to eight weeks.

“They have granted us access to the building through the back entrance of the property,” Lewis said, “so, we can get inside the building, which is convenient.”

Megan Jackman, office clerk and deputy treasurer for the Village, said while the DPW did not have to vacate the building, removal of all vehicles and equipment from the property was required.

At the May, 2026 regular village council meeting, Trustee John Galbraith said the DPW had been advised that all the vehicles and equipment must be removed from the site in order for the cleanup to be done.

Crews will excavate soil, debris, and underground remnants of a manufactured gas plant formerly located at the site the EPA said in a July 8 statement. The EPA expects to remove and dispose of approximately 3,000 tons of contaminated material by the end of summer.

The property is owned by the North Houghton County Water and Sewage Authority. The site was originally the location of the Calumet Gas and Coke Company, a coal gasification plant, using a high-heat chemical process to bake coal in the absence of oxygen to produce fuel for lighting and heating.

The byproduct of the process was coal tar, which accumulated on-site. Before the Peninsular Gas Co. converted the site to a propane gas distribution facility in the 1940s, waste was discharged into a ditch south of the site and was carried through residential areas and wetlands into nearby Hammel Creek.

In the 1990s, the EPA and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). By 2008, EPA, EGLE, and Peninsular Gas had removed more than 8,200 tons of contaminated soil and sediment from the offsite areas and installed a barrier to contain the remaining coal tar onsite.

At the time, ongoing distribution of natural gas prevented further excavation, but since then, operations have ceased and the above-ground infrastructure has been removed, allowing the EPA to continue cleanup efforts.