The federal Environmental Protection Agency is taking over the site of a contaminated Hastings grain elevator.

The EPA took over after the Garvey Elevator filed for bankruptcy. The site has been deemed a federal Superfund site, making it eligible for extensive, long-term cleanup.

Three years ago, the elevator was placed on the EPA's national priorities list of hazardous waste sites.

The federal agency said the elevator released carbon tetrachloride and other common industrial solvents into ground water that supplies drinking water to the area.

The EPA has estimated the plume of the contamination to be about two miles long.