Town To Enter Mediation Over

Reed School Fuel Spill

By Andrew Gorosko

As the town continues cleaning up remnants of the 4,000 gallons of #2 heating fuel that spilled last December in a mechanical failure at Reed Intermediate School at Fairfield Hills, it also is preparing to enter mediation in seeking to recover its expenses for that cleanup project.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal said this week that the town soon expects to enter mediation with the unnamed firm or firms that participated in constructing the school, which opened for classes in January 2003. The contract that the town entered for the construction of the school requires such mediation in seeking to reconcile disputes, Mr Rosenthal said.

Mr Rosenthal declined to identify the firm or firms, or to describe the town’s allegations.

If mediation proves unsuccessful in settling the dispute, the town would pursue a lawsuit in seeking to recover cleanup costs for the fuel spill, according to the first selectman.

Haynes Construction Company of Seymour was the general contractor for school construction. Many subcontractors participated in the project.

Town officials have designated $1.2 million in town spending for the fuel spill cleanup work.

In a related matter, Mr Rosenthal said the town is nearing resolution of a complaint filed against it by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA is seeking a fine against the town for environmental damage caused by the fuel spill.

Although the federal Clean Water Act allows the EPA to seek up to $32,500 in fines against the town for the fuel spill, EPA officials have said they expect the town eventually would be fined some lesser amount.

In resolving the EPA complaint, the town may pay the federal agency a “small fine,” and also conduct an environmental remediation project at the brook into which some of the spilled fuel flowed, Mr Rosenthal said. The first selectman declined to more specific about the EPA matter.

According to the EPA, approximately 100 gallons of the spilled heating fuel flowed from the school along a trench containing a sanitary sewer line and then entered Deep Brook and the downstream Pootatuck River.

Cleanup Continues

A major fuel spill cleanup is now underway within Reed School, where wells have been drilled through the concrete floor of the lower level to recover what may be 2,000 gallons of #2 heating fuel lying beneath that building.

State Departmental of Environmental Protection (DEP) environmental analyst Aaron Green said last week that at least 1,500 gallons of the 4,000 gallons of spilled fuel has been cleaned up so far.

“It’s moving along,” he said of the continuing cleanup project.

Wells have been drilled through the school’s boiler room floor and through a classroom corridor in “Lower Area 3” of the building. The spilled fuel that is trapped beneath the school building is being extracted through those wells.

After the school year ends in late June and students are out of the building, workers will take more aggressive steps to recover the spilled fuel, Mr Green said. More extraction wells will be installed, he said. Also, different types of wells may be installed, he said.

About one dozen wells are now operating inside the school, he said.

It is unclear how long the fuel spill cleanup project will continue, he said. “It’s going to go on until they meet state [cleanup] requirements.”

Although the EPA stated that 100 gallons of fuel entered Deep Brook, it is unclear how much fuel actually got into the brook, Mr Green said. Filtration machinery has been in use near the brook to prevent any further fuel from entering its waters.

Dom Posca, head of the school system’s buildings and grounds unit, said he expects that the extraction wells within the school will remain in use “for a couple of years.”

“We are making progress,” he said.

The fuel spill was discovered last December 29. A heavy petroleum odor and oil sheen on Deep Brook and the Pootatuck River triggered a fire department response, after which the fuel spill at the school was found. Reed School students were on vacation at the time.

Deep Brook contains Class A water, and is one of only eight streams in the state where wild trout reproduce naturally. Class A water is considered drinking-water quality.

The effect of the fuel spill on the stream’s aquatic life will not be known until midyear, when the DEP conducts its annual trout census there. The stream is a Wild Trout Management Area.