Rockford Plans Cleanup of Industrial Sites

The city has a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for restoring polluted sites downtown or nearby.

Removal of asbestos from the former Ingersoll factory along the Rock River will cost $1.1 million. The city plans to build a $21 million indoor sports center there.

A Main Street site and an adjacent plot were to be cleaned up for $400,000 to make way for an Amtrak train station. The depot will go elsewhere but the money was already awarded to clean the parcels of heavy metals and industrial chemicals.

City Planning Administrator Wayne Dust says the funds can't be transferred for a different project.

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