(Radio Iowa) – As Waterloo residents work to revitalize old industrial areas, concerns are mounting about the safety of those sites, like the Chamberlain ammunition plant which was abandoned some 40 years. Residents want to tear it down and put affordable housing in its place, but the E-P-A has said the soil is toxic. Margo Collins-Draine, who’s lived in the neighborhood since the late ’60s, wants to see more help from the agency beyond just a warning sign. “They’re coming in and they’re giving consultations, but they’re not putting their money where their mouth is,” Collins-Draine says. “They need to do more as far as funding sources to help the city out.”

Collins-Draine says Chamberlain and other factories left Waterloo nearly 50 years ago, and the city was left with few options. “HUD didn’t come in, EPA didn’t come in. Nothing was ever treated. The groundwater wasn’t treated,” she says. “Most of them were along either the Cedar River or tributaries to the Cedar River, so there’s contamination.”

The E-P-A named the Chamberlain compound a “brownfield” site several years ago, preventing any immediate development of the property. The site is currently fenced off without signage indicating the danger.