The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, is in Michigan today. She’s visiting for a ribbon cutting at Ventower Industries in Monroe. It’s a company that will be making towers for wind turbines.
The Monroe facility will serve as Ventower's main U.S. operation.
35 employees will start work this week, and as many as 300 could eventually work there.
Scott Viciana is the company’s vice president. He says the plant is built on the site of a former industrial landfill. So first, they had to clean up the land.
“We stumbled across less (sic) concerns in the end than we thought potentially we could.”
Ventower got state and federal tax credits to clean up the brownfield site.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says that makes it a double win for the environment.
"What we see here today is a return to use. A return to use for a site that will preserve green space, but also support a clean energy economy."
Ventower officials say the Monroe site is ideal because it can ship parts by road, rail, and a Great Lakes port.
