[CPEO-BIF] Former dry cleaner, Madison, Wisconsin

[Lenny Siegel]

Ken Koeppler didn't know he bought a former dry cleaner, but now he owns all of its problems

by STEVEN ELBOW 
Capital Times (WI)
December 7, 2016

Ken Koeppler figured he’d be retired by now. With a medical resume that includes two heart attacks, the 65-year-old musician and recording engineer has painstakingly amassed a modest portfolio that includes three rental properties and a retirement account that belonged to his late wife.

But after the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources discovered contaminated soil underneath one of those properties — left over from its former incarnation as a dry cleaning business — retirement now looks like a pipe dream. The DNR’s demands that he test, engineer and remediate the site have already cost him tens of thousands of dollars, and he expects those costs to balloon into six digits in the coming months.

He’s spent hundreds, if not thousands, of hours researching the problem, contacting engineers, state and federal representatives, lawyers, DNR regulators and owners of other contaminated sites.

...

For the entire article, see
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/environment/ken-koeppler-didn-t-know-he-bought-a-former-dry/article_36a875bf-5813-538b-8ef6-dba676a4cad3.html

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel at cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org