Seaholm Substation Cleanup Complete

Arsenic, lead and the byproducts of burned oil were some of the contaminants found underneath an electrical substation at the Seaholm power plant downtown.

The land will eventually be home to Austin’s new central library. Those contaminants have now been removed and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has issued its seal of approval.

Rick Scadden, an engineer with INTERA, the Austin company that handled the cleanup, says they removed about 32,000 tons of soil from the site.

“We worked about three years on that project, and it feels good to be finished,” Scadden said.

Construction on the $120 million central library is scheduled to be completed in late 2015. It is just one portion of the entire Seaholm redevelopment, which also includes apartments and retail. You can read more about the construction process on this city webpage.