Date: Fri 06-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Batchelder-SPA-contamination

Full Text:

Town Awaits EPA Analysis Of Possible Contamination At Former Bathchelder Plant

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Samples taken from the Charles Batchelder Company property on Swamp Road are

being analyzed at the federal Environmental Protection Agency's laboratory in

Lexington, Mass., this week to evaluate the amount of hazardous waste which

might exist on the 30-acre site.

Gary Lipson, on-scene coordinator for the EPA's environmental services

division, said about 60 samples were taken last week at the bankrupt aluminum

smelting plant from such areas as the soil, pond sediment, metal drums left

inside the buildings, from remains of the plant's furnace and from the huge

piles of waste materials left around the property.

Although most of the samples were analyzed at the site by technicians from the

Roy F. Weston Company, an environmental contractor from Burlington, Mass., ten

percent of the samples were sent to the EPA laboratory to confirm the accuracy

of the on-site testing.

"Once the analysis is completed - in about three weeks - we will have a pretty

good idea of what needs to be done," Mr Lipson said. "Then it becomes more of

a question what the (EPA) budget will allow us to do. We have to prioritize

projects and address the most critical ones first."

Mr Lipson said the EPA wanted to take samples at the site late last spring

after the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) asked for the

federal agency's assistance, but it took several months to get permission

through the bankruptcy court.

Newtown Health Director Mark A.R. Cooper and James Smith, chairman of the

board of managers of the Newtown Health District, met with state DEP officials

about a year ago to ask that the Batchelder site be evaluated, partly because

teenagers frequently trespass on the property to ride bikes and hold parties

there.

"We sent the DEP copies of police reports showing that it is a continual

problem," Mr Cooper said.

Mr Cooper said State Rep Julia Wasserman also met with DEP officials to stress

the urgency of the problem. The DEP then decided the magnitude of the problem

might require EPA action.

"When the results (of the testing) come back, we may find (the pollution) is

not as bad as we thought - which would be good - or it may be worse, in which

case we will be able to push to get something done," he said.

Tom O'Connor, environmental analyst for the DEP's water management bureau,

said that the Batchelder Company is not among the Newtown sites currently

listed on the EPA Superfund program inventory of known and suspected hazardous

waste disposal sites. This inventory, known as CERCLIS (Comprehensive

Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Inventory System) includes

six Newtown sites: The Bee Publishing Company at 5 Church Hill Road,

Connecticut Engineer Association Corporation on Philo Curtis Road, Harvey

Hubbell Inc on Prospect Drive, the former Newtown landfill on South Main

Street, the old Newtown landfill on Route 34 and Noranda Metal Industries on

Prospect Drive.

Mr O'Connor said the Batchelder property wasn't on the CERCLIS list because,

prior to shutting down, it had applied to be listed under the Resource

Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) programs as a burner and blender of waste

oils. The RCRA designation is used to promote reuse and development of

industrial sites.

"I recently got a determination that Batchelder is not under RCRA so

potentially that brings them back under CERCLIS," Mr O'Connor said. "It hasn't

slipped through the cracks - the (federal and state) agencies are very aware

of this site."

Mr O'Connor said that several years ago the state's attorney general's office

intervened in the bankruptcy process "to pursue both a remedial plan and to

perform some remediation of the problem."

Under this agreement, which also was approved by the Board of Selectmen and

the Legislative Council, the company agreed to make $300,000 available to

assess pollution at the site and do limited cleanup work including the removal

of oil tanks. Mr Lipson said that about a foot and a half of oily residue had

been found on the surface of water in manholes on the site so a subsurface

interception system was installed but the money ran out about halfway through

the project.

When the agreement was signed, town officials hoped that some money would be

left to pay part of the $262,657 in real estate taxes and $470,000 in personal

property taxes which the company owed the town. The company, which employed

125 people at its peak in the late 1970s and early 1980s, closed its doors in

February 1987 and filed papers to reorganize its debts under the bankruptcy

laws later that year.

Once the only smelting plant of its kind in New England, Batchelder operated

for more than 30 years in Newtown. But it never fully recovered from an April

1984 explosion which killed one worker at the plant.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited the company for

violations which included excess noise, airborne concentrations of hydrogen

chloride, inorganic arsenic, lead and dust. Later tests of sediment from the

plant's storm water stystem showed concentrations of arsenic, lead and other

pollutants.

Mr Cooper and Mr Smith plan to attend a meeting co-sponsored by the EPA and

the DEP in Hartford on September 18 at which recent changes in the federal

Superfund program will be discussed. The owners of properties on the CERCLIS

list also have been invited to attend.