At last night’s environmental committee of Community Board 6 meeting, John Bogdaski, an environmental consultant for Whole Foods, reported that site preparation work for cleanup of the proposed two-acre Whole Foods site at Third Avenue and Third Street began earlier this month. The site should be decontaminated and ready for future development by the end of April.

NY Post: The problem is Whole Foods is still trying to salvage the store-part of the project by finding development partners, although Bogdaski said the chain “is still committed” to building the supermarket.

He said in the coming weeks contaminated soil and three leaky underground storage tanks containing benzene and other cancer-causing substances would be removed and trucked away.

The cleanup of the site was originally supposed to be done in conjunction with construction of a new store. Instead, Bogdaski said the site would be covered with two feet of clean fill in preparation for potential development.