By Daniel Lapham/Staff Writer

The preliminary stages of environmental damage assessments are under way for an excursion train project that could be located at the old Rock Island diesel shop.

On Aug. 30, representatives from the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency met with El Reno City Manager Tony Rivera and Community Development Director Robert Coleman to discuss what it would take to acquire the property and develop a business on the site.

Coleman said the EPA came out Aug. 9 to look around the site and get reacquainted with it.

“That assessment was generally a preliminary visit to reacquaint them with the site,” Coleman said. “Something has to be done with it. The property has been sitting there since the Rock Island left.”

During the meeting, Rita Kottke, DEQ Environmental Programs manager, said it is time to do something with the site, and the state wants to work with the city to get it cleaned up.
“We are trying to figure out why it’s just sitting there,” Kottke said. “We think it is because there was no score.”