Full Text:

head: Abandoned Smelting Plant Poses Health Hazards, Particulary To Teenagers

Who Hang Out There

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Physicians in Newtown and Monroe have been alerted to potential health and

safety problems at the abandoned Batchelder aluminum smelting plant on Swamp

Road in Newtown.

Newtown Health District Director Mark A.R. Cooper last week sent a letter to

doctors in two communities advising them that there are potential health and

safety problems for persons who trespass on the site.

"The primary concern is for young adults, teenagers, who visit the site during

the warmer months to hang out with friends," Mr Cooper aid. "There are obvious

indicators that this is a hang-out location for both Newtown and Monroe teens.

Evidence of teen visitation include graffiti art, motorized all-terrain

vehicle tracks, motor bike trails, campfire pits, etc."

The physical and chemical hazards found at the site are a result of industrial

wastes (dross piles) left from the aluminum smelting process, the health

director said.

"There is a potential risk to health from the inhalation of dust containing

heavy metals," he said. "Metals found at elevated levels include chromium,

cobalt, aluminum, and cadmium."

Inhalation of this dust may cause damage to the respiratory system. One

outcome of exposure to powdered metal dust, reported in medical literature,

may be metal fume fever. This is an acute syndrome that follows exposure to

metal fumes or very fine metal dust particles.

"The symptoms are characterized by symptoms similar to the flu: fever, chills,

excess sweating, nausea, weakness, fatigue, and throat irritation," he said.

"Metal fume fever is often incorrectly identified as the flu."

Mr Cooper asked the physicians to report illnesses that may be associated with

trespassing on the site. The names of the physician and the patients will be

kept confidential, he said.

In May, Daniel J. Burke of the US Environmental Protection Agency's emergency

planning and response division announced that the EPA would spend $503,000 to

fence the 31-acre Batchelder property, remove about two cubic yards of

lead-contaminated soil, and contain other contaminants inside the buildings.

Piles outside the building will not be removed because they don't contain what

is defined as hazardous wastes.

"The dust does pose a health risk, however, and from my point of view, if the

EPA won't remove the materials, then at least the fence offers some

protection," Mr Cooper said.

Testing was done on the site by a Massachusetts contractor, the Roy F. Weston

Company, at the direction of the 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 twice. The results

were published in a report prepared by the DPH under a cooperative agreement

with the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

"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.

Reports of Illness

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."

The site also contains soil contaminated with PCBs from waste oil, 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. "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. They finally got permission

from the bankruptcy court last summer to do testing on the site.

The property is bordered on the west by Swamp Road and 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. Tests

have not shown any well contamination.

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 clean-up work, including the

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

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.