After years of preparation, the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI) will formally become the owner of an 80-acre tract of land being conveyed to it by the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site on Friday.
“We are thrilled to get this property … and eventually bring jobs to Southern Ohio,” SODI Executive Director Steve Shepherd said by telephone Wednesday. The development group was created by DOE in 1995 community reuse organization (CRO) for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site near Piketon, Ohio.
Shepherd and Assistant Secretary of Energy for Environmental Management Anne Marie White plan to sign the final paperwork on Friday, the SODI official said. The transfer culminates a review process where the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency had to verify there were no uranium issues on the site. The process already has from Energy Secretary Rick Perry. A 60-day congressional review ended last month.
There was no radioactive work done on the 80-acre site, which is located outside the restricted access fence at Portsmouth, Shepherd said. It was used as an airstrip by Goodyear, the company originally in charge of the site for the federal government, during the 1950s and 1960s.
There have already been inquires made about using the site and Shepherd anticipates even more interest in 2019 when DOE is expected to transfer a second, larger, site to SODI. The development organization expects to receive a 220-acre tract, located adjacent to the one now being transferred, next year, the executive director said.
Eventually SODI will have about 300 acres transferred and the property is equipped with excellent electric transmission and water utilities, making it attractive to industry, Shepherd said.
