Date: Fri 10-Oct-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Mile-Hill-bypass-pollution

Full Text:

Work At Mile Hill Bridge Uncovers Soil Contamination

(with photo)

BY KAAREN VALENTA

Representatives of the State Department of Transportation's Environmental

Compliance Section are waiting for the results of testing to see whether

groundwater near the bridge on Mile Hill Road at Fairfield Hills is

contaminated with gasoline.

Workers digging footings for the bridge over the Pootatuck River discovered

traces of gasoline in the soil last month. The discovery did not prevent the

closure of the old bridge last weekend so that a temporary bridge could be

installed. The bridge was expected to be closed from 6 pm Friday to 6 am

Monday, but work was completed well ahead of schedule.

"We were done by 11 am Saturday," said David Anderson, the DOT's inspector at

the site. "Everything went very well."

The target date for completion of the new bridge is April 1998, he said.

Mr Anderson said that when workers from the Dayton Construction Company of

Watertown, the contractor for the $3.2 million bypass road project, were

digging footings they detected an odor of gasoline in the soil.

Although the source of the contamination isn't known, town officials suspect

the rollover of a gasoline truck on the on-ramp of I-84 at Exit 11 on October

27, 1986, could be responsible. The rollover resulted in the spill of 3,900

gallons of gasoline. At that time, Mike Capuano, an inspector for the state

Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) estimated that between 500 and

2,000 gallons of the gasoline reached the river located about 500 feet

downhill from the ramp.

Greg Dorosh, project engineer in the DOT's Environmental Compliance Section,

said his office was notified on Monday, September 22, about the problem at the

site.

"This was something unexpected, but not an emergency," he said. "We called in

a consulting firm, GEI Atlantic Environmental Systems of Colchester, N.Y.,

which came and took soil samples."

The samples showed traces of chemicals which are found in gasoline, he said,

but the results were "not that bad."

"It was residual contamination," he said. "But we have regulations that have

to be followed if there is contamination in the groundwater."

If the water is contaminated, it must be pumped out and treated, then

discharged into the river, Mr Dorosh explained.

Results of the testing of the water samples have not yet been received, he

said.

Mr Dorosh said the soil contamination was found on the east side of the river,

nearest I-84. There was no indication of contamination in the soil or

groundwater on the other side of the river, he said.

He said the workmen also discovered an old, abandoned Southern New England

Telephone conduit under the ground. The water in the conduit appeared to have

a sheen on it, he said.

"That may have been a way for the contamination to get there," he said. "It

could have gotten into the conduit and just sat there."

The DOT project engineer said that when the DOT encounters something that

looks like possible contamination, the agency calls the Department of

Environmental Protection's emergency spill reporting hotline and that was done

in this case.

"To my knowledge (the DEP) hasn't been out there yet," he said. "If the

situation was serious - a spill that just happened, for example - they would

have come out immediately. In a case like this, they know we are handling it

and they may not become involved."

First Selectman Bob Cascella said the local and state health departments also

were notified because of the proximity of water wells in the area.

"It's certainly an environmental issue because of the aquifer. There also are

concerns because of the problems that we have already had with pollution on

Oak View Drive," he said.

Mr Dorosh said it is not likely that the bypass road project will be delayed

by this new problem.

"We have a very rigid schedule to get the bypass road done and we're trying

not to impact it," he said.