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EPA Report Recommends Batchelder Clean-up

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering an internal

report which recommends a $503,000 initial clean-up and fencing of the former

Charles Batchelder Company plant in Botsford.

The recommendations are in a report written by Daniel J. Burke, on-scene

coordinator for the EPA's Emergency Planning and Response Branch, and sent to

Linda M. Murphy, director of the EPA's Office of Site Remediation and

Restoration, on April 9. A copy of the report was received by Mark A.R.

Cooper, director of the Newtown Health District, last Friday, May 2.

"It's a step in the right direction," Mr Cooper said after reading the report.

"Hopefully this will eventually make (the Batchelder property) an economically

viable site for future use."

The clean-up recommendations follow a report, prepared by the Connecticut

Department of Public Health (CTDPH) for the EPA in March, which warned that

there is a significant health and safety risk for anyone who trespasses on the

31-acre property on Swamp Road where an aluminum smelting plant operated from

1947 to 1987.

Mr Burke's "action memorandum" asked that a posted chain link fence be

installed around the perimeter of the site to address the short-term

recommendations of the state health department. Health officials had warned

that besides physical hazards existing in the deteriorating plant, there are

toxic hazards, especially for youths who frequently trespass on the site to

ride dirt bikes.

Mr Burke said dross piles, which contain fine particles of unmelted metallic

materials that were a byproduct of the smelting operation, are located both

inside and outside the buildings. Those inside the buildings will be collected

and contained on-site to keep the dust from being airborne and becoming an

inhalation threat. The dross piles that are outdoors will be further

evaluated, he said. One pile which is believed to contain lead contaminants

will be removed and sent to an off-site disposal facility.

All drums and bulk containers will be sampled, if contents are still unknown,

and will be inventoried. Once the contents have been analyzed, these drums and

containers will be transported to off-site disposal facilities for recycling,

treatment or disposal.

Nine-Month Clean-up

Based on available information, this clean-up can be completed within nine

months, Mr Burke said.

The memo said the need for the clean-up has been demonstrated.

"Actual or threatened releases of hazardous substances from this site, if not

addressed by implementing the response actions selected in this action

memorandum, may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to public

health, or welfare, or to the environment," Mr Burke said.

Although hazards exist at the site, it is not currently proposed for the

National Priorities List of hazardous waste sites, nor is the EPA planning to

propose the site for inclusion on the NPL, he said.

Town officials now are waiting to see whether Mr Burke's recommendations will

be implemented by the EPA. Tom O'Connor, a state Department of Environmental

Protection (DEP) project manager who is involved with the Batchelder

investigation, said he believes the EPA will act.

"I think the EPA will do some abatement - remove some of the drums and the

lead contaminated pile, and put up fencing - and then will determine what else

should be done," he said. "This first-stage emergency removal would come from

an EPA fund set up for this purpose. If there is interest in developing the

site for an industrial use, it could qualify for (more extensive) clean-up

through the EPA's Brownsfield funding."

In its March report, the CTPHD said heavy metal toxins, lead, asbestos and

other contaminants were found on the Batchelder property and there is a

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

wearing protective respiratory gear.

"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.

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.

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. They finally got permission

from the bankruptcy court last summer for testing on the site.

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

an active railroad line and by Newtown Lumber; the eastern and southern

sections are bordered by wetlands known as Pine Swamp.

Some residential water wells are located within 500 feet of the site's western

boundary adjacent to Swamp Road. Monitoring of these wells has not shown any

contamination. Mr Cooper said that is largely because the contamination

consists primarily of heavy metals which are not water-soluble and do not

travel in the groundwater system.

In smelting operations conducted at the site for 40 years, 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.

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 clean-up work including the

removal of oil tanks. The money ran out about halfway through the project.

The Batchelder company employed 125 people at its peak in the late 1970s and

early 1980s and was at one time the only smelting plant of its kind in New

England. 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 numerous violations and ceased all operations three years later.