City Officials Advocate City Taking Lead Role In Omo Cleanup: Could Cost Millions

 (Attorney Diane Whitney addresses the Common Council.)


"This is a case where there's bad news, and there's worse news," said Attorney Diane Whitney, an expert in environmental cleanup,  addressing serious contamination on what has come to be known as the Omo site on Walnut Street in Middletown.  "First we have this site, and Middletown has done some of this contamination.  And the worse news, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is coming."

The Common Council held a workshop on the cleanup of the site in a special meeting Tuesday, and members were urged by Whitney, who represents JR Marino, current owner of the property, City Planner Bill Warner and City Attorney Tim Lynch to take the lead in the cleanup and relieve the Federal EPA of the responsibility for cleanup.

(Environmental expert Amy Vaillancourt.)

Could Cost Millions

"It is certainly not pleasant, and it's going to cost Middletown millions of dollars," Warner said.  However, he argued that by using a surgical strategy in the cleanup, the city could save millions over what it would cost for a cleanup directed by the EPA and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Safety.  That cleanup, which would include a remediation of PCBs on the site, and a capping of the site by scraping four feet of earth on the site and replacing it with clean fill, would cost, at a minimum of $15-20 million.




                                                                                                                                         (JR Merino)

While making no promises because the site could hold costly contamination surprises, Warner said that a plan which would remove the most contaminated segments of the site, and would call upon the aid of Marino's American Contractors, would be significantly less costly.  Warner could not, and would not speculate on exactly how much money the city might save by conducting the cleanup itself.

The EPA is demanding a decision on which entity will take the lead position by July, a deadline which was extended with the help of Senator Joe Lieberman's office.  The Common Council will vote on whether to take the lead postion at it's regular meeting in July, and whether to appropriate $150,000 for further exploration on the site.

State Calls Clean-up Emergency

The state has classified the cleanup as needing "emergency response," and as such, the cost could rise significantly if no-bid, licensed emergency response contractors are used by the EPA.

"They would like to be in here tomorrow," Whitney said.  "Calling it an emergency kind of cracks us up.  They've known about it for twenty years and now it's an emergency."

Amy Vaillancourt, a representative of VHB, an environmental consulting firm studying the site for the city indicated that the EPA took samples on more than 200 locations (yellow dots) around the 10 acres site, and found concentrations of PCBs of 10 Parts Per Million (PPM) in 20 locations, which is within state standards for commercial sites.  Another 4 sites (yellow flags) had samples over 25 PPM, which would have to be mitigated, and one sample (red flag) which contained a pink "eraser-like" substance registered a disturbing 8100 PPM.

The site was once the location of OMO Manufacturing which, under the name Middletown Rubber, for decades produced rubber products.  The manufacturing plant was then purchased by Georgia Bonded Fibers which was then acquired by Bontex, an international manufacturer still in operation.

The site was used by Middletown as a municipal landfill from 1935-1957, and was also used by the state of Connecticut as a fill site when it built Route 9 in the 1950's.

Despite the history the EPA has only named the city of Middletown and JR Marino as the primary Potential Responsible Parties (PRP).

Whitney, who has extensive experience on the Southington Superfund site, indicated that the EPA was typically not exhaustive in their search for PRPs.

"You are on the hook, and JR Marino are on the hook" Whitney said, explaining that the EPA was usually only concerned in finding the deepest pockets to pay for the cleanup.

"They're looking for live bodies who can pay the cost of the cleanup," Mayor Sebastian Giuliano added.  "Once they've found those, they don't seem to push further to find other responsible parties."

"I as a property owner have contributed zero to the contamination," Salvatore "JR" Marino said.  "The land is the way I bought it in 1997."

Marino, for his part, declared that he almost abandoned the property after dealing with the EPA, but offered the services of his company, American Contractors for excavation services worth between $200-300,000.  Marino expressed concern that he stood to lose 15 tenants on the property if the EPA methods were used, requiring a complete evacuation of the property during the remediation.


EPA and Private Cleanup Methods Differ

All parties explained that the EPA and DEP methods did not address cross-contamination and removal of barrels located underground on the property.  Vaillancourt and Warner indicated that their strategy would be to remediate contaminated areas of the property on a spot-by-spot basis, cap those sites and then locate all underground barrels using ground penetrating radar, and removing the barrels and removing and remediating contents.

This method, all parties agreed, would be more efficient and far less costly than the state and federal methods.

Warner also explained that as lead agency, the city would move to extend responsibility to other PRPs like the Bontex company and the State of Connecticut DOT, so that they would share in the cost of cleanup.  Whitney indicated that the city should urge the EPA to send letters of accountability to those parties.

Council Concerned About Water, Neighors, Money

Council members asked a number of questions of the experts.

Ron Klattenburg asked about other materials on the site, and was assured by Vaillancourt that the manufacturing history of the site suggested that many dangerous compounds found at other such sites did not appear to be in evidence.  Council members Phil Pessina, Hope Kasper and Grady Faulkner quizzed Vaillancourt about potential harm to water sources, and contamination of neighboring homes.

"Tests of the groundwater supply suggest that there is no widespread groundwater contamination," Vaillancourt said.  "This would suggest that it is a soil problem not a water problem.  What we have there is clay and tight till."

Faulkner also wanted to be sure that the city, using private contractors, is able to handle the problem, considering it's scope.  Warner assured Faulkner that the city would use contractors with experience.

Vaillancourt also indicated that procedures used by contractors she's familiar with prevent any air contamination while remediation is conducted.

David Bauer asked for a projection of costs in years to come, as did Council member Vinnie Loffredo, but Warner resisted the temptation to speculate on an estimate until further research is conducted.  He noted that the EPA had budgeted $3 million for intial work, and that the methods they proposed could reach $15 million in costs.

"The biggest cost is disposing materials," Warner said, indicating that sites in Canada and Texas were the only ones currently taking PCP contaminants.

Council member Gerry Daley urged all involved to avoid panic.

"We don't have any evidence that this contamination has any health risk to the community," Daley said.

The Council discussed all topics in the public workshop and declined to go into executive session as planned for any further discussions.

"The mayor, and Attorney Lynch and I feel we needed to talk about this in public," Warner said.  "It's our problem.  It's a Middletown problem."