Cleanup of the South Commons tank farm is on the horizon. Here’s what’s planned.

A dilapidated eye sore along the Chattahoochee River in Columbus could finally see demolition day.

Laura Johnson, director of the Columbus Consolidated Government’s Community Reinvestment department, told Columbus Council Tuesday evening that the old state docks property, a dilapidated fuel storage site acquired by the city from the Georgia Ports Authority in December 2018, should hopefully be cleared by the end of the year.

The Ports Authority has put $300,000 toward the demolition of tanks and structures on the approximately 15-acre site at 800 Lumpkin Boulevard across from South Commons Softball Complex. An additional $400,000 is budgeted for the project.

The estimated cost of the demolition is around $650,000, and Johnson said the department is waiting on an updated quote from the contractor.

“We hope to get it back in the next couple of weeks and then we’ll schedule the demolition,” Johnson said.

According to a 2018 Columbus Council resolution, the property currently houses “an above-ground storage tank farm with secondary containment, an above-ground piping system, a rail unloading area, a truck loading rack, and two buildings totaling 34,000 square feet of office and warehouse space.”

The Ports Authority received the state docks site from the city in the 1960s to operate a port for barges along the river. The Ports Authority leased the property to a company called Omega Partners, LLC for 20 years but agreed to terminate the lease during negotiations with the city.

Local officials became concerned in 2015 when concerned citizens, including the Chattahoochee River Conservancy advocacy group, led by then-Executive Director Roger Martin, approached the city about the environmental impact of fuel being stored that close to the river.

The city then began talks with the Ports Authority about the sulfate turpentine that had been stored there, emitting a bad odor.

The Ports Authority agreed to pay for an environmental impact study to determine if there was any residual from leaking tanks, and funded three environmental studies in 2015 and 2016. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division has since certified the site clear of contamination.

Johnson said Wednesday that the city will have to do an additional investigation under the tanks once they are removed.

“There really is no way to know if there is any contamination under the tanks, but if there is it would be minor because it would be contained just up under where the tanks are,” she said. “The rest of the site came back clean.”

The city currently does not have plans for the site once it is cleared.

“I’m sure we’ll get to that point soon, but the goal right now is just to get the site clean,” Johnson said.

Ledger-Enquirer archives were used in this report.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story referenced the incorrect advocacy group responsible for initiating a study of the environmental impact of the fuel storage. The Chattahoochee River Conservancy was the advocacy group.

This story was originally published August 28, 2019 at 4:30 PM.