SAUGERTIES – The state Department of Environmental Conservation this month will conduct a study into a former manufactured gas plant in Saugerties.

An environmental site characterization investigation will be undertaken to determine the environmental condition of a three-quarter acre parcel of land on Ferry Street that operated converting coal, oil and other feedstocks into gas used for lighting, cooking and heating homes and businesses.

Plants like this were shut down with the advent of electricity, but their byproduct, coal tar, often remains.

The Saugerties site is 300 feet south of the Esopus Creek and about 3,000 feet west of the Hudson River. Municipal water is supplied to this and surrounding homes. The property spans a privately owned residential property as well as partially spans an undeveloped second privately owned property.

Investigation will include the collection of soil and groundwater samples. The goal of the initial sampling is to determine whether or not impacts from the former gas plant exist and whether or not manufactured gas plant impacts have migrated off-site, and possibly into the Esopus Creek.