DPW Picks Firm For Environmental Study

By Andrew Gorosko

The state Department of Public Works (DPW) has selected HRP, Inc., of Plainville as the engineering consultant to study the nature and extent of environmental contamination at Fairfield Hills.

The detailed study is considered necessary before the state can sell the 186-acre core campus and 17 major buildings there.

DPW spokesman Pat Nolan said the environmental study will provide a “quantitative analysis” of contamination problems at the former psychiatric institution, which closed in 1995.

The environmental study was expected to start October 21 when DPW officials were scheduled to meet with representatives of the environmental engineering firm in Hartford, Mr Nolan said. The project is slated to conclude in mid-February. The work is expected to cost between $100,000 and $150,000 and will be covered by state bond funding, Mr Nolan said.

The report to come from the study will make environmental cleanup recommendations to DPW. DPW is working with the state Office of Policy and Management (OPM) on the disposition of the property in the geographical center of town.

The study will verify environmental contamination problems, which were uncovered in a preliminary study of the property performed earlier this year. The new study will focus on the extent of soil contamination, as well as contamination within buildings. The study will aid the state in estimating the cost of cleanup work.

The preliminary study touched on a variety of chemical spills and releases which have occurred at Fairfield Hills over the past two decades. The planned study will include test borings to document the nature and extent of those soil contamination problems.

State officials had hoped by September to select a firm to acquire and privately redevelop Fairfield Hills for mixed uses.

The developers competing to acquire the property have submitted purchase offers based on their estimates of what it will cost to rectify environmental contamination problems. The environmental consultant will provide the state with independent clean-up cost estimates to better gauge the accuracy of the developers’ cleanup cost estimates.

Becker and Becker Associates, Inc, of New Canaan; Spectrum Skanska of Greenwich, and Wilder Balter Partners, LLC, of Elmsford, NY are the three firms competing for the acquisition and redevelopment of Fairfield Hills.

The town has first refusal rights on buying Fairfield Hills. During the past several months, public officials have pondered the wisdom of the town acquiring the property.