MidAmerican Energy Co. and an Iowa-based apartment owner are required to pay nearly half of a million dollars and to carry out remediation of a Superfund site of a former gas plant in Iowa City, IA, under a proposed consent decree published Thursday.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed the proposed consent decree against MidAmerican Energy, a distributor of natural gas and electricity, and Iowa-Illinois Manor LLC, owner of apartments in Iowa City near the University of Iowa, last Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, mandating the recovery of costs to clean up the releases of hazardous substances from a coal-gas production facility that was operated up until the 1930s. Notice of the consent decree wasn’t published in the Federal Register until Thursday.

Under the terms of the proposed consent decree, Des Moines, IA-based MidAmerican and Iowa-Illinois Manor will perform remediation for the site and pay $429,300 to the Superfund to cover the response costs of the federal government.

The apartment complex, which houses about 2,500 people (mostly college students), occupies half of the site where the soil has been deemed contaminated, posing a hazard to humans and the environment.

MidAmerican Energy is owned by Warren Buffet, considered one of the world’s savviest investors, and provides natural gas and electricity service to more than 6.9 million customers in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Public comments on the proposed consent decree are due within 30 days at DOJ. The proposed consent decree can be reviewed at the DOJ website at www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html.

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