BOZEMAN — A site at a shopping plaza at 15th and Main in Bozeman is conditionally approved for a brand-new grocery store—but according to the city, the project may never happen.
In 1989, officials discovered that a dry-cleaning business, formerly located at the site, was dumping a known carcinogen, PCE, into the sewer, contaminating sewer wells until it spread as far as the east Gallatin River.
A report by the Department of Environmental Quality says the PCE is linked to liver and kidney failure in humans accidentally exposed.
Decades of research and millions of dollars went into remediation efforts, with cleanup of the solvent site having begun in 2013, using food-grade oil to dissolve the contaminant.
After excitement around the new grocery store heightened, MTN reached out to the City of Bozeman for details on the project and received this response:
That potential grocery store is located on a property with a "brownfield" solvent site issue and one of the conditions is that they must submit a work plan for cleanup of any contaminated soil prior to construction of the site.
City officials say the developers have not submitted an approved work plan for the site.
The site plan approval is now over one year old and has expired.
