Photographs of Remediated Former Manufactured Gas Plants

Before the United States had an extensive system of natural gas pipelines, municipalities that needed gas for lighting, heating and cooking had to make it. That involved the construction of plants that used coal and/or petroleum to create gas. As late as the 1940s, approximately half the country's gas was manufactured.

The remains of those manufactured gas plants (MGPs) dot the United States, and estimates of their numbers range up to 50,000 nationwide. Because of the wastes created by the gas production process, many MGPs are now toxic waste sites.

• Generalized Schematic of a Manufactured Gas Plant
• Generalized Process of Manufactured Gas
• Photographs of a Kansas City FMGP