Heating Fuel Spill Cleanup Continues In Wintry Conditions

By Andrew Gorosko

Amid tough winter conditions, including high winds, subfreezing temperatures, a snowstorm, and a rainstorm, workers pressed on this week, continuing their around-the-clock cleanup of an estimated 4,550 gallons of #2 heating fuel, which spilled from an external heating system at Canaan House at Fairfield Hills, extensively contaminating nearby soil and groundwater.

The cleanup’s urgency was underscored by a skeleton crew’s use of portable lighting equipment to illuminate the site for nighttime work. Surveyors took measurements at the site to document the dimensions of the excavation. Massive excavators repeatedly loaded waiting tractor-trailer dump trucks with tainted soil, which was then hauled away for disposal.

State Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officials this week were awaiting the results of soil testing to show them where they should continue excavating soil. The cleanup work is expected to cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

After leaking out of Canaan House’s external heating system for an extended period, Fairfield Hills security staff discovered the spilled fuel early on the morning of December 8. The fuel, which is dyed red for high visibility, had spilled onto the snow-covered terrain at the northwestern corner of the more than 200,000-square-foot masonry building. The state-owned building contains offices for the town school system, plus several town departments. Some school system staffers have relocated within Canaan House during the cleanup. The town is in the process of buying Fairfield Hills from the state.

Ron Wofford, a DEP spills inspector, estimated that as of December 16, workers had recovered somewhere between one-half and two-thirds of the spilled heating fuel.

“We’re waiting for soil sample [test results] to come back,” he said. The information gleaned from those test results will aid the DEP in determining the location and extent of contamination that remains to be cleaned up.

On December 12, workers moved the external heating system from the northern side of the building’s western entrance to the southern side of that entrance to allow them to excavate the heavily contaminated soil in the spot where the heating system had stood when it leaked its fuel. Many workers using much power equipment created a huge pit in that area where soil contamination was heavy.

Spilled oil also is trapped within utility lines at Canaan House, but such spillage is relatively easy to clean up, Mr Wofford said.

Trout Stream

“The brook looks real good. The brook looks clear,” Mr Wofford said of the water quality in a tributary of Deep Brook. An undetermined amount of spilled heating fuel got into that tributary after traveling about 500 yards through an underground storm sewer line.

The area where Deep Brook meets the Pootatuck River is designated as a wild trout management area by the DEP due to its high water quality. There are only eight such wild trout areas in the state, where trout breed naturally.

William Hyatt, DEP’s director of inland fisheries, said Deep Brook and the Pootatuck River provide high quality habitat for trout. He termed it “a special place in a highly populated area like Connecticut.” Only approximately 150 yards of the tributary of Deep Brook was affected by the oil spill, Mr Hyatt said.

The most likely damage that would have occurred to the trout habitat would be spilled oil damaging the trout eggs, which now lie buried in the stream’s gravelly bed, waiting to hatch next spring, he said.

DEP will not be able to fully evaluate the impact of the oil spill until next summer, when it records the trout population in that area, Mr Hyatt said.

Mr Hyatt termed the trout situation, “serious, [but] hopefully not a catastrophe.”

Steve Grover, a spokesman for the Candlewood Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited, said he hopes the oil spill has not damaged the natural reproduction of trout in the area. Cold weather conditions and high water volumes in streams may have limited the damage to the trout habitat, he said.

Although the spilled fuel made its way to the Pootatuck River, Mr Wofford said there is “no indication” that the spilled heating fuel has entered the Pootatuck Aquifer. The aquifer, which is a major local underground water source, provides drinking water for two public water supplies and for thousands of individual domestic water wells. 

Spill Site

Mr Wofford noted that some of heating fuel that spilled found its way beneath the concrete basement floor of Canaan House. A basement room in the building was found flooded with heating fuel after the spill. Some of the fuel that spilled is sitting near the foundation of the building, he said.

There are technical methods available to extract spilled fuel from beneath buildings, he said.

Considering the presence of a maze of underground utility lines in that area, plus variable soil types, the spilled fuel might spread underground in the area, Mr Wofford cautioned. When the spilled fuel comes into contact with underground utility conduits, it may disperse into multiple directions, compounding the complexities of a cleanup.

During the cleanup work, Canaan House’s structural integrity will not be compromised, Mr Wofford said. Instead of outright excavation in some areas near the building, special devices to vent spilled oil might be installed, he said.

Because some of the spilled fuel was continuing to enter a storm-sewer manhole near Canaan House this week, the area needs to closely monitored, he said. Workers use suction equipment to extract such fuel from manholes. As long as spilled fuel continues to enter the manhole, workers will be on hand to monitor conditions, he said.

Of the fuel leak, Mr Wofford said, “It was going for many, many hours” before it was discovered. The fuel reportedly spilled out of a broken 3/8 -inch diameter pipe coupling that was operating under 100 pounds of pressure.

The state Department of Public Works, which oversees Fairfield Hills for the state, is investigating why the fuel spill went unreported for as long as it did.

Effect On Fairfield Hills Transfer

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal said December 17 that the town’s attorneys have discussed with the state’s attorneys what effect the oil spill might have on the timing of the town’s planned purchase of Fairfield Hills. The town plans to buy 189 acres at Fairfield Hills, including 17 major buildings and many minor buildings, for $3.9 million from the state. The town’s purchase of Canaan House is part of the deal.

Although the sale’s closing is scheduled to occur by the end of December, that transaction will not occur until the town is assured that the state has appropriate protections in place to provide for the fuel spill cleanup, Mr Rosenthal said.

State officials have assured the town that cleaning up the spill is the state’s responsibility, Mr Rosenthal said.

The town has its environmental consultant monitoring the fuel spill cleanup.

If nothing were done to remedy the problem, the spilled fuel would eventually find its way into the subsurface water table and into area surface waters.

Fleet Environmental Services of Bethel is performing the fuel spill cleanup for the state.