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SARATOGA SPRINGS, Utah (AP) -- Federal authorities say they are assessing a cleanup plan for a former congressman's abandoned mining-explosives factory in Utah County.
The Environmental Protection Agency says there's no immediate danger of an explosion at Cook Slurry Co., but chemicals left behind could put burgeoning subdivisions at Saratoga Springs at risk.
The EPA provided an update of its investigation Thursday. It has taken keys to the property, double-locked gates, posted caution signs and is warning neighbors who live as close as half a mile from the plant.
The EPA hasn't removed any of the chemicals -- mainly ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel in separate tanks.
But the landowner, a state agency that locked former U.S. Rep. Merrill Cook out of the site in a lease dispute last summer, says some cleanup will be necessary before it can sell the 480 acres for real-estate development.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
