Just across the river and through the woods from Bill Castanier's house on Tecumseh River Drive, is coal ash pit filled by the Lansing Board of Water and Light more than 30 years ago.

Late last year, Castanier said, some work began again.

"I'd wake up in the morning in December and I'm going that's a loud noise over there, what's going on?" Castanier said.

It's a project that's both both confused and concerned neighbors in the area for months.

"People who live near the river, get nervous that things could go wrong and coal ash could leak into the river," Castanier said.

BWL officials did their best to explain Tuesday at this public meeting called by Council Member Carol Wood.

"What we decided to do was remove all the ash from that site and take it to a licensed land fill," that official said Tuesday.

The DEQ and the Ingham County Health Department were invited too, Wood said, so everyone would be on the same page.

"It was a matter of information," Wood said. "What we heard were concerns from the public, how long would it last and how was it affecting the ground water."

And for every question during the meeting, there was an answer.

"We have not found any contamination from which we draw water and we test that regularly," The BWL official said.

BWL said it has removed about 35 percent of the coal ash so far, the project should last about a year to a year and a half, at which point they will fill it all in, and plant some trees.

Castanier said he's satisfied, but wishes the whole thing were handled differently.

"I think they needed to tell neighbors," Castanier said. "Really anytime you're spending $3 million of public money, you needed to tell people."

The reason people get concerned when talking about coal ash -- the largest industrial spill in the US happened in Tennessee back in 2008. A slurry failed, spilling 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash over 300 acres of land.