SARANAC LAKE — A public meeting will be held next week on a $14 million plan to clean up environmental contamination at the former Saranac Lake Gas Company site on Payeville Lane.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Region 5 office in Ray Brook.

DEC has proposed a “Remedial Action Plan” for the now-vacant property, which was used to manufacture lighting gas for the village via a coal gasification process from the late 1800s to the 1940s.

An investigation that took place in 2013 and 2014 detected coal tar wastes and significantly elevated levels of manufactured gas plant wastes above state standards in the soil and groundwater at the site. The same contaminants were found in the sediments of two downstream water bodies: Brandy Brook and Lake Flower’s Pontiac Bay. Separate cleanup plans have been developed for those areas.

At the former gas plant site, DEC plans to implement an “In-Site Solidification” process, according to a fact sheet about the project. The top 4 feet of soil in a 1.37-acre area would be excavated. Approximately 24,500 cubic yards of soil underneath that, from 5 to 20 feet below the surface, would be injected with a binding agent, usually cement.

“The soil and binding agents are mixed to produce a solidified mass resulting in a low permeability monolith,” DEC said. “The resulting solid matrix reduces or eliminates mobility of contamination and reduces or eliminates the matrix as a source of groundwater contamination.”

A site cover that consists of a minimum of 4 feet of soil would then be placed over the solidified soil.

DEC would maintain an environmental easement over the property that would allow for commercial and industrial use but restrict the use of groundwater on the site. A site management plan would also be implemented.

The estimated cost to implement this cleanup is $14,648,000, according to the fact sheet. The funding would come from the state Superfund Program.

At Wednesday’s meeting, DEC staff will discuss the plan and take public comments, which are being accepted through March 27.

DEC says it will consider the comments as it finalizes the remedy for the site.

“The selected remedy will be described in a document called a “Record of Decision” that will explain why the remedy was selected and respond to public comments,” the fact sheet reads. “A detailed design of the selected remedy will then be prepared, and the cleanup will be performed.”

DEC previously issued decisions on the other two areas that are part of this cleanup. In Pontiac Bay, the state plans to excavate a 76,000-square-foot area to a depth of 7 feet to remove an estimated 16,900 cubic yards of coal-tar-contaminated sediment. The bay will be dammed up and dewatered so the work, estimated to cost $9.3 million, can take place. The site would then be restored.

The state also plans to excavate a 29,000-square-foot area within and along Brandy Brook, to a depth of 4.5 feet, to remove an estimated, 5,800 cubic yards of contaminated sediment. The brook will be dewatered so the material can be removed by an excavator, dewatered and pre-treated. The affected area would then be restored. The Brandy Brook cleanup is expected to cost $3.6 million.

DEC officials said in December that the earliest the work in the bay and the brook could happen is the fall of 2018.