On June 15th the Manresa Association had it's annual meeting to present the status of the Maresa Island power plant. 85 people attended,including representatives from the EPA & DEEP.

In short, the take away was that not much is going to happen for maybe a generation, other than necessary remediation.  When the plant was burning coal, the coal ash and residue from combustion was scattered over the property and is now between one to five feet thick under a foot or so of topsoil. That residue is known to contain heavy metals. The question now is whether the enormous costs of remediation vs the "value" of future use can be justified.  

The EPA is conducting a year long pilot study to see if heavy metals are leaching up in various salt and fresh water wetlands. Once completed, the appropriate wetland remediation could proceed. Since the future use of the dry lands (containing the power plant) is unknown and the owner is not actively trying to market it, exactly what type of remediation would be required is on-hold. It's going to be a catch 22 scenario of use / cost / safety, and unfortunately the likely outcome is that the property is too expensive to clean up and will become another bird sanctuary, being unfit for human use. Time will tell.

Additionally, the power company negotiated a lower tax rate with Norwalk because the plant is "inactive"  (and therefore less valuable??).

See the meeting summary...   HERE    

For the time being, boaters will be able to use the stack to find Norwalk.