Clean-Up Of Batchelder Site Will Cost $1.36 Million

By Andrew Gorosko

An analysis of contaminated industrial waste present at the abandoned Batchelder aluminum smelting site on Swamp Road in Botsford indicates that it would cost up to $1.365 million to sufficiently clean the property to make it suitable for its industrial reuse.

In a report to the town, Down to Earth, LLC, a Milford environmental consulting firm, writes “The cost of clean-up is estimated to be in the range of $1,365,000 at the outside…This estimated cost might be reduced in several ways. It may be possible to encapsulate some of dross piles on-site. There is a just-announced [government grant] program of ‘brownfields’ assessment and clean-up for hydrocarbon problems, which may provide funds.”

“Brownfields,” such as the Batchelder property, are industrially contaminated properties. The site, at 44-46 Swamp Road, adjacent to the Wickes Lumber lumberyard, has been abandoned since 1987.

With clean-up cost estimates finally in hand, the town is now planning to market the 31-acre property for its eventual industrial reuse and subsequent placement on the town’s property tax rolls. The extent and the cost of the clean-up work needed will be based on the specific eventual reuse of the property, First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal has said.

A key element of the site’s clean up would be removing voluminous metallic dross piles. There are about 8,665 cubic yards of metallic dross at the Batchelder site, representing about 12,131 tons, or 24.26 million pounds, of waste material.

An analysis of contamination problems at the site indicates that the dross piles are not suitable for recycling. Such recycling would have decreased site clean-up costs.

“Unfortunately, the [dross] piles are either too oxidized or contaminated for recycling,” according to Down To Earth, which suggests that the town take two steps regarding the Batchelder site.

The firm recommends that the town apply to the Connecticut Leaking Underground Storage Tank Fund as a third party to rectify pollution problems posed by leaking abandoned underground fuel storage tanks, before there is additional contamination from the leaking tanks. The leakage has contaminated adjacent soil and groundwater.

If the state accepts the Batchelder site for the storage tank clean-up program, the clean-up and management costs for reclamation work would be covered by the state, according to Down To Earth.

It would take about six months for an application for such funding to be approved or rejected by the state, according to the environmental consultants.

Down To Earth also is recommending that the town advertise the availability of the Batchelder site to learn if there is a buyer that wants to put it to a new industrial use.

“There may be a gap between the perceived market price and the final clean-up cost. The town can then determine if it can find the funds to close the gap,” Down To Earth advises.

 According to Handex, a Monroe environmental consulting firm that has studied the Bathchelder site contamination problems, cleaning up the site will involve: designing and installing a water well system to cleanse groundwater contaminated by petroleum products leaking from two underground storage tanks; removing two buried fuel storage tanks and adjacent contaminated soil; removing landfill materials from the site; and shipping out the aluminum dross piles for disposal at a landfill authorized to accept such contaminants.

Since The Charles Batchelder Company’s financial collapse in the 1980s, the town has not collected any property taxes on the property. No taxes have been paid since 1984. The property, which has an approximately $1.6 million tax-assessed value, would be paying more than $46,000 in property taxes annually. The site holds a 100,000-square-foot building.

In 1997, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spent about $300,000 to remove certain types of toxic waste from the site, including heavy metals and solvents. The EPA fenced off the contaminated site to prohibit access.

The site’s clean-up problem is complicated by the bankruptcy protection that Batchelder was granted by US Bankruptcy Court, and by financial claims that have been filed against the company by its creditors.

Marketing

The town will market the Batchelder site with the aid of the state Department of Economic and Community Development and the Connecticut Development Authority. Marketing will involve providing some combination of federal, state, and local financial incentives for the new owners of the property, which would encourage those owners to acquire the site, clean it, and put it to some new industrial use.

The town wants to make the Batchelder site a viable, productive site, which would generate local property tax revenue, Mr Rosenthal has said.

The flat land is zoned for industrial use and has a rail siding owned the Housatonic Railroad. That railroad and CSX Corporation, which is a major rail firm, have expressed interest in providing rail service to the site.

The site lends itself to becoming a light manufacturing complex or a warehouse/distribution center. Parts of an existing 100,000-square-foot industrial building on the site may be reusable. Under current zoning regulations, up to 400,000 square feet of enclosed industrial space could exist on the site. Current zoning for the property would allow light manufacturing, heavy manufacturing, research and development facilities, offices, a distribution complex, or warehousing.

 Advertising by the town to market the Batchelder site is expected to start soon in real estate publications and on the Internet.