The long process toward action at the site of the former Batchelder Smelting Company is grinding forward, according to Public Works Director Fred Hurley.

The aluminum smelting site at 44-46 Swamp Road has been abandoned since 1987. It is a brownfield, or industrially contaminated property, that formerly housed the company until it initiated bankruptcy proceedings in April 1987. It had ceased all operations several months earlier. A fire of unknown origin destroyed the company’s office building in July 1988.

The property has not only gone unused and unimproved, but it has also contributed to a significant environmental contamination risk due to the thousands of cubic yards of metallic dross located at the site — representing literal tons of hazardous waste material. The Town’s Sustainable Energy Commission has been tasked with developing a plan for removing the waste and restoring the property to a usable condition.

“The first order of business is to get the remediation project off the ground and running,” Hurley told The Newtown Bee. “They have a final report on the phase 2 and phase 3 environmental review. Now, the next step is to put together the Request for Proposal (RFP) plan to activate the actual remediation and be able to apply for that grant money from DEEP [Department of Energy and Environmental Protection] or DECD [Department of Economic and Community Development].”

An RFP is a crucial step in organizing the kind of intervention that will be necessary on the Batchelder property, which has multiple environmentally problematic elements that need to be addressed before the site can be developed upon. The RFP is intended to outline the requirements, scope, and objectives of a remediation project, which includes what needs to be done at the site as well as which specific environmental standards need to be adhered to.

As Hurley explained, by moving forward with the RFP process, the Public Works Department hopes to move towards the grant application process. State agencies such as DEEP and DECD, which receive federal money for the purpose of distribution to projects such as the Batchelder cleanup, have the capacity to provide critical support to Newtown in what could be a potentially lengthy and expensive process.

He also stressed the potential economic and transportation benefits that could be achieved by investing in the remediation.

“There’s developers that are interested in coming to that property and building a solar farm or perhaps even an anaerobic digester,” Hurley said. “There’s a lot of things that they’d be interested in.

“We also have plans in the town to complete the Rails-to-Trails portion in Newtown, extending what comes out of Monroe. Coincidentally, the terminus for the Monroe portion of Rails-to-Trails is at the Batchelder site. You’ve got passive recreation that we want to do, and some other available public uses for that land — not just putting solar panels up there,” Hurley said.

Rails-to-Trails is a long-term regional infrastructure project with the ambitious goal of creating a continuous hiking system from Long Island Sound into upstate Connecticut.

Sustainable Energy Commission Chair Kathy Quinn weighed in on what steps the commission has taken in cooperation with Public Works. She explained the most recent study that was done with regard to the site was published in 2019, and the first step in the remediation process will be to update the most recent evaluative report on the current state of the site.

“Basically what we want someone to do,” she explained, “whether it’s the same company or another one, is to go in and give us an update, so we have a fresh start of where things are at and what needs to be addressed as far as remediating the property. Fred’s putting money in his budget as a placeholder, so that we have those funds available. That’s not the funding to clean up the property. That’s the funding to do a study.”

Hurley planned to present this budget proposal to the Board of Selectmen meeting on January 24.

Economic and Community Development Director John Voket also spoke to the importance of the initiative and the potential benefits that could be derived.

“Something has to be done,” he said, “and there is a potential for a development there that could have multiple positives, including green jobs, green energy, and possible transportation and agricultural benefits.”

Voket added, however, “there are miles to go, and this budgeting process is just the first step in a long journey.”

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Reporter Owen Tanzer can be reached at owen@thebee.com.