Date: Fri 28-Mar-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

Batchelder-contamination

Full Text:

Report Warns Of Significant Hazards At Batchelder Site

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

A federal and state report released this week warns there is a significant

health and safety risk for anyone who trespasses on the site of the former

Charles Batchelder Company plant at 40 Swamp Road.

Besides physical hazards existing in the deteriorating aluminum smelting

plant, there are toxic hazards, especially for youths who frequently trespass

on the site to ride dirt bikes, the report said.

Heavy metal toxins, lead, asbestos and other contaminants which pose a risk to

public health have been found on the site, located in the Botsford section of

town. Although monitoring of private wells on surrounding properties has not

shown any off-site contamination, tests have shown there is a significant

health risk for anyone who frequently ventures on the site without wearing

protective respiratory gear.

Testing was done on the 30-acre site by a Massachusetts contractor, the Roy F.

Weston Company, at the direction of the US Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in

August and December 1996. The Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH)

also visited the site in October and again last month. An analysis of the

results was prepared by the DPH under a cooperative agreement with the federal

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

This report, completed on March 13 and released this week, was sent to Mark

A.R. Cooper, director of the Newtown District Department of Health, who

forwarded a copy to First Selectman Bob Cascella on Tuesday.

"Trespassers that regularly gain access and travel with dirt bikes on the

piles (of waste materials at the site) may experience an unacceptable health

risk from the inhalation of metal dust," the report said.

The conclusion was based on the assumption that a dirt bike rider might go on

the property 30 days a year, riding an average of three hours on the site each

time, over a period of eight years. This would pose an "acute health hazard

from inhaling the metal dust," the DPH said.

Tests showed the metal dust contained elevated levels of chromium, cobalt,

aluminum and cadmium and inhaling it "may cause damage to the respiratory

system." An exposure to powdered metal dust could cause "metal fume fever," an

acute syndrome characterized by symptoms similar to the flu: fever, chills,

excess sweating, nausea, weakness, fatigue and throat irritation.

Trespassers Get Ill

The report said there were two reports of youths experiencing flu-like

symptoms after trespassing the site in 1996 and, "because the DPH does not

know or is unable to obtain the diagnosis of the reported illness, therefore

metal fume fever cannot be ruled out."

One of the many piles of dross and baghouse wastes from the smelting

operations also contains lead at a level which represents a public health

hazard to trespassers, especially young children who may accidentally ingest

the soil during contact with the piles. The site also contains soil

contaminated with PCBs from waste oil and possibly cyanide, a pile of tiles

that contain asbestos, an underground gasoline storage tank and fuel pump that

might pose an explosion hazard, many open pits and numerous drums, tanks and

other debris which represent a physical hazard to anyone who trespasses on the

property.

In addition, the structural integrity of sections of the larger of two

buildings on the site has been damaged to such an extent that a building

collapse is likely, according to the report.

"One of the (Health) District's first goals is to secure the site and

publicize the hazards posed to trespassers, in particular youth who tend to

congregate during the warmer season," Mr Cooper said in a letter to the first

selectman. "This effort will be coordinated with officials in Monroe where it

is believed many of the youths live."

The health district, the town and State Rep Julia Wasserman have been working

with the DEP and the EPA for two years on the problems of the Batchelder

property, which has been on federal/state hazardous waste lists since the

company closed the plant and filed for bankruptcy. The state and federal

agencies finally got permission from the bankruptcy court last summer to do

testing on the site.

Mr Cooper said the EPA may agree to secure the perimeter of the main section

of the plant with fencing and warning signs although no commitment has been

made yet in writing.

"We're talking about an eight-foot-high chain-link fence with razor wire on

top," Mr Cooper said. "That's what is needed and there are some indications

the EPA may agree to do it."

Must Warn Children

At the same time, he said, parents have to be made aware of the seriousness of

the risk and must relay that information to their children. Police regularly

eject youths from the site, where dirt bike tracks, graffiti, beer bottles and

discarded toys show evidence of frequent trespassing.

An inventory of the site included 10 above-ground storage tanks of various

sizes, including three 20,000-gallon capacity tanks in an area where the soil

was heavily stained with what appeared to be oil; 64 full or partially full

drums, bags and storage boxes; 31 propane cylinders and a gas cylinder. Many

piles of debris, abandoned vehicles and machinery are on the site.

Piles of baghouse dust and dross slag waste piles located along the eastern

portion of the site had flowed through the existing fence and completely

covered sections of it. On the southwest corner of the property, the liner and

soil cap of a former landfill area which also contains these wastes have been

breached in several locations, the report said.

The property is bordered on the west by Swamp Road, on the north by an active

railroad line and Newtown Lumber; the eastern and southern sections are

bordered by wetlands. Water supply wells for residential properties are

located within 500 feet of the western boundary adjacent to Swamp Road.

"Most of the contamination on the site involves heavy metals which are just

that - they are not soluble in water and don't travel in the ground water.

Monitoring of the residential wells has shown no contamination," Mr Cooper

said. "(Heavy metal contaminants) have to be physically picked up and moved -

which is what happens when the dirt bikes go through there."

In smelting operations conducted at the site from 1947 to 1987, scrap metals

such as transformers, painted venetian blinds, automobile parts, edge

cuttings, containers and other items were fed into a smelter, melting the

aluminum and creating waste products. Baghouse fines, consisting of small

particles precipitated from the smelter furnace, were piled around the site.

Under an agreement approved by the Board of Selectmen and the Legislative

Council in January 1992, 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. The money ran out about halfway through the project.

In the summer of 1993, scrap metal removal operations were conducted at the

site. During this activity, large sections of the fence on the north and east

of the property were removed. The fence has not been repaired, the DPH report

said.

District health officials, State Rep Julia Wasserman, and First Selectman Bob

Cascella pressured the DEP to take action in 1995 and the DEP subsequently

asked the EPA to evaluate the site. Recently the EPA said federal funds may be

available for the cleanup as long as the town continues to agree that the

property could be used again as an industrial site. Community Development

Director Elizabeth Stocker said she has had discussions with firms that are

interested in doing the clean-up and also talked with officials from other

firms that could be interested in the property once it is cleaned up.

The Batchelder company, which employed 125 people at its peak in the late

1970s and early 1980s, closed its doors in February 1987. Once the only

smelting plant of its kind in New England, Batchelder operated for more than

30 years in Newtown. But after an April 1984 explosion killed one worker at

the plant and damaged the structural integrity of the main building, the

company was cited for violations which included excess noise, airborne

concentrations of hydrogen chloride, inorganic arsenic, lead and dust.