PANA - Christmas came early for Pana as the 93-acre former South Central Terminal Refinery site was donated to the city in early November by one of the former owners of the refinery.

City officials see potential for future commercial development that could boost Pana's economy, especially if U.S. 51 is upgraded to four lanes between Decatur and Centralia. The highway would pass a quarter-mile south of the site, which is on the west side of U.S. 51 at the city's southern edge.

"Once it was the pride of Pana," said Jim Deere, director of the Pana Office of Development. "Then the tanks got rusty and nasty. A Brownfield program will help us identify the problems we've got out there, but the general feeling is there will be useable land for commercial purposes."

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spent $2.5 million on a surface cleanup of the site, finishing in March 2000. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has had an interest in the land since placing it on its remedial action priorities list in September 1988. In June 1999, a "seal order" locking up the site was issued by the Illinois EPA and remains in effect.

Deere said the city has hired Patrick Engineering of Springfield to represent it in discussions with state EPA officials on obtaining Brownfield funds to further cleanup the site. He said the firm will prepare a Brownfield grant application that likely will be submitted in the first quarter of 2006.

Pana Mayor Ken Mueller said only part of the site needs to be cleaned up. He said the property could help provide a buffer zone for the city's sewerage which is at the southwest corner of the site.

"If we needed to expand the sewerage, we could do that at a future date," he said.

The site fronts on U.S. 51, but there is an old building the city needs to remove, Mueller said. There is too much highway frontage to have it locked up, he said.

"The consultant will say what needs to be done," he said. "Hopefully, it won't cost us anything with the Brownfield grants available. The surface has been cleaned up. We have to decide if we need, or want, to clean up the subsurface. The EPA will tell us what we can use (of the land) and what needs to be done to it."

Some money remains in an EPA held account setup by the site's former owners for cleanup, but how much is uncertain, Mueller said.

Ron Ingram can be reached at ringram@;herald-review.com or 421-7973.