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Paducah Land Set Aside for Public Recreation Will Become Site of Factory

The Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Resources Commission has passed a resolution that aims to use a tract of land near the site of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant as part of an economic development plan in Paducah.

Commission chairman Stuart Ray says the development will bring about 200 to 300 new jobs to the area without significantly impacting local recreation.

"This tract of wildlife management area is roughly 66, 67 hundred acres, and this is about 650 of those acres, so it does reduce it by roughly ten percent,” Ray said.

The development includes plans by GE-Hitachi to request a license related to their Global Laser Enrichment project. Ray says he expects the commission to maintain control of the land for about the next 2 years.

“Long term – we continue to add wildlife management areas,” Ray said. “We’ve added an additional 4,000 acres specifically in western Kentucky and this particular area so there’s significant net gain of recreational opportunities for the sportsmen and women of the commonwealth… I think this will have negligible long-term impact.”

All recreational activities held on the land will be relocated before construction begins.

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