800,000 Pounds Of Contaminated Soil

Excavated At Fairfield Hills

By Andrew Gorosko

Workers excavating the land that was contaminated by a recent heating fuel spill at Canaan House at Fairfield Hills have, so far, carted away more than 400 tons, or 800,000 pounds, of tainted soil for incineration and cleansing, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Amid frigid winter conditions, work continued this week to remove soil that was contaminated when an estimated 4,550 gallons of #2 heating fuel spilled from an external heating system at Canaan House on the snowy weekend of December 6–7. The spill went undetected until December 8, allowing much fuel to drain from an external fuel tank.

DEP has categorized the environmental problem as a “significant” spill, which warranted a high level of concern and immediate cleanup action by the state.

Workers this week started excavating the area beneath pavement on the west side of Canaan House, which serves as a combined parking lot/driveway.

Tunxis Management Company has cordoned off to traffic all of First Street and a section of Fairfield Circle South while the excavation is underway. Tunxis operates Fairfield Hills for the state Department of Public Works (DPW). Tunxis blocked the roads for safety and security reasons.

Surveyors who worked at the site documented the extent of the excavation.

Ron Wofford, a DEP spills inspector, said work has been “progressing well.” Soil sampling at the site was continuing in order to gauge the degree, extent, and level of soil contamination present, he said. Workers used a device known as “geoprobe” to remove soil core samples, which are then analyzed for their chemical composition. Excavation at the site progresses, as necessary, in response to the results of the soil testing.

DEP officials review the results of the cleanup project on a week-by-week basis to determine how to proceed, Mr Wofford said. It is unclear how long excavation and cleanup work will continue at the property, he said. How long the work continues will depend, in part, on the town’s and the DPW’s satisfaction with the extent of the cleanup work, Mr Wofford said.

The town plans to pay the state $3.9 million to buy 189 acres, including 17 major buildings, at Fairfield Hills, a former state psychiatric institution, which closed in December 1995. The Canaan House property is part of that transaction.

In light of the fuel spill and other environmental issues, the town has delayed its acquisition of Fairfield Hills at least until late February. The sale had been scheduled to occur by December 31.

First Selectman Herbert Rosenthal has said the town’s purchase of Fairfield Hills from the state will not occur until the town is assured that the state has appropriate safeguards in place to provide for the fuel spill cleanup. The town has its environmental consultant monitoring the work.

If nothing were done to remedy the problem, the spilled fuel would eventually find its way into the subsurface water table and into area surface waters.

There is no indication that the fuel spill has affected the Pootatuck Aquifer, Mr Wofford said. The subterranean water supply is a major local source of drinking water, providing water for two public water supplies and many domestic water wells.

Also, the water quality in a tributary of Deep Brook “looks good,” Mr Wofford said.

The rapid spill cleanup work helped protect a trout stream tributary of Deep Brook. Some of the spilled heating fuel had traveled about 500 yards through a storm sewer lying beneath Fairfield Hills to that trout stream. The pristine brook is part of a riverine area that contains the last remaining “Class 1” trout stream in Fairfield County, and is one of only eight such areas in the state, where trout breed naturally. DEP will not be able to fully evaluate the impact of the oil spill on the brook until next summer, when it records the trout population in that area.

The Canaan House oil spill cleanup will be expensive job for the state, possibly costing somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million.

Besides town school system offices, the 208,888-square-foot Canaan House contains the town’s departments for land use regulation, building, public health, and the fire marshal’s office.

Fleet Environmental Services of Bethel is conducting the cleanup project for the state.