Fairfield Hills:

Unanswered Environmental Questions

At the urging of interested citizens, Legislative Council chairman Pierre Rochman said last week that the council will closely examine potential environmental costs associated with the proposed town purchase of the 185-acre Fairfield Hills campus. Under its right of first refusal, the town has been offered the site for $5.5 million “as is” by the State of Connecticut, which wants to rid itself of whatever liabilities linger there.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal has indicated that the offer from the state continues to be the focus of negotiations between the town and the state’s Office of Policy and Management. We hope and expect that concerns about the environmental hazards left behind by the long-gone state mental hospital are part of those continuing discussions. The “as is” stipulation in the state’s $5.5 million asking price for Fairfield Hills is too much of a financial wildcard for the town to accept without quantifying the extent and cost of the environmental contamination at the site.

Unfortunately, the state’s own “Phase II” environmental study of Fairfield Hills was limited in its scope. Unknowns qualify the conclusions of the report. The project manager for HRP, the firm that conducted the Phase II study for the state, noted in the report that “budgetary constraints imposed by the client” limited the areas of the 185-acre site that were assessed and the types of contaminants that were search for.  The extent of the environmental damage done at Fairfield Hills is still not known, and yet the town appears to be considering a deal with the state in which it would take on the liabilities and costs of cleaning up the site.

Without a complete empirical assessment of the environmental problems at Fairfield Hills, establishing the true cost of Fairfield Hills to the Town of Newtown is impossible. We are left guessing based on what we know. The guess we hear most often is that cleanup costs will be in the $12 million to $15 million range. What we don’t know could push that amount significantly higher.

We are not privy to the details of the town’s continuing negotiations with the state. Perhaps all these issues are being addressed. We would hope that the town would not accept a deal that does not limit Newtown’s liability for cleaning up contamination put there by the state. Before it purchases Fairfield Hills, Newtown should insist on a cap on environmental cleanup costs.

The town should also insist on a complete assessment and cleanup of the environmental damage at Fairfield Hills, regardless of who ends up owning or developing the land. It doesn’t matter whose name is on the deed, this land lies at the heart of our town, and as stewards of Newtown, it is our responsibility to ensure that it is passed on as a safe, healthy, and beautiful place to live.