Government has begun cleaning up polluted Morgan’s Point, to the relief of the developers planning to build a $2 billion tourist development there.Craig Christensen, one of three Bermudian directors of Morgan’s Point Ltd, said the work, which began in April, was “very helpful” in terms of moving the luxury resort project forward.And he told a press conference yesterday: “We are looking to put the full remediation package out there for full tender in very short order.”Mr Christensen told The Royal Gazette he thought the Ministry of Public Works got it wrong when it quoted $38 million as the cost of the remediation during this year’s Budget debate.“In my view, it doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he said. “I think that number is inflated. I’ve had conversations with them before but they haven’t really spent the time and effort, in my view, to really look at this in a more practical sense.“I don’t see it being near that number. I’m not the expert but my best guess is [that it would cost] $20 to $25 [million].“We have had meetings with senior officials in Government, with a view to reducing some of the scope of work required without compromising the actual remediation needs.”Mr Christensen claimed Government made the pollution left by the American military on the peninsula in the 1990s sound worse than it was “because they were trying to extract money from the US Government for the clean-up of Morgan’s Point”.And he said that hadn’t helped Morgan’s Point Ltd when it came to finding funding for the luxury resort.“Probably 50 percent of all lenders will not lend on polluted land,” he said. “It’s really been unfortunate that the Government went about promoting the fact that Morgan’s Point was heavily polluted and put that on their website and communicated that to the public.”Mr Christensen claimed recent tests showed the only significant pollution was on Government-owned land, which will be leased to the developers for use as a golf course.“There are only two areas, which represent an acre each, well to the north of any development,” he said. “The black oil plume of about one acre, which everyone talks about, which is Bassett’s Cave. There is a one-acre jet fuel plume next to it, next to Bassett’s Cave, and that represents about two acres out of 207 acres at Morgan’s Point.“We’ve got to clean it to international standards, which is the right thing to do, but none of the stuff out there poses, to my knowledge, any health hazards.”He said his business partner Nelson Hunt had already done some cleaning, including the removal of three metal tanks from a building, “which really sort of demonstrates what can be done in a fairly cost-effective way”.“I don’t see it being that difficult, other than Bassett’s Cave,” said Mr Christensen. “The rest of it is more normal conditions and [will require] use of heavy equipment.”But he said it had been difficult to determine when building work could begin on the hotels as Government had been so vague on the clean-up details.Junior Public Works Minister Vince Ingham told the Senate in March that remediation would start the following month and would take “up to five years”. He previously said the early phases would be done by April 2014.“We have had discussions with Government as to what is necessary to be cleaned up first to expedite the Morgan’s Point development,” Mr Christensen told this newspaper.“We are starting to get some clarity with respect to time frames and commitment.”Government has repeatedly said in recent years it was investigating sources of funding for the clean-up. It told this newspaper last month that a “revised remediation plan” was to be developed (see sidebar).