Odor Complaint Prompts DEP To Supervise Cleanup

By Andrew Gorosko

A Barnabas Road woman’s complaints about a strong odor emanating from a Hawleyville paving firm’s work yard prompted the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to supervise the cleanup and removal of a large storage tank at the work yard which held road tar.

Bunny Cash of 66 Barnabas Road said this week she complained to town and state officials in June about a heavy odor coming from Dosch-King, Inc, a paving firm at 20 Hawleyville Road, which is located near Ms Cash’s residence.

Dosch-King, which operates during the warm weather, uses the chip-seal method for road resurfacing.

Ms Cash said that in seeking to clean out an old tank on the site, the firm had cut a hole into the storage tank, creating a strong, unpleasant odor in the area. A substance, which was apparently from the tank, was on the ground nearby, Ms Cash said. The storage tank had been present on the site for decades.

Deputy Fire Marshal Richard Frampton said that at the request of Ms Cash, he inspected the site.  Mr Frampton referred the matter to the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Town Health Director Donna McCarthy said that as a precautionary measure, the town is having the state perform water quality tests on the water produced by about six wells on properties adjacent to the Dosch-King site, several of which are residential properties. Those tests will check for the presence of toxic petroleum products and “volatile organic compounds” in the well water, Ms McCarthy said. Such tests would determine whether substances, such as creosote or solvents, are present in well water. The results of such tests should be available in several weeks, she said.

DEP inspector Ken LeClerc said the DEP had Dosch-King hire an environmental cleanup firm to perform the storage tank cleanup and removal. Some of the road tar from that tank had gotten onto the ground nearby, and thus the soil there had to be removed for proper disposal, Mr LeClerc said.

“It’s an [odor] sensitivity issue more than anything else,” Mr LeClerc said, noting the strong odor of road tar. Road tar is not considered a hazardous material and poses no threat to Dosch-King’s neighbors, he said.

The well water testing will be done as precautionary measure, Mr LeClerc said, noting there is no current indication of well water contamination.

 Dosch-King president David King stressed that the 20,000-gallon railroad tank car, which the firm had used for road tar storage, has been removed from the property. The tank had contained approximately 250 gallons of road tar, he said. “It’s been cleaned up and removed and the odors are dissipating…The situation has been remediated and it’s no longer an issue,” Mr King said. The road tar that had been on the ground near the tank has been removed, he said.

Ms Cash said on July 16 the odor problem in the area has diminished. “I’m glad they’re doing something about it…Things are improving…I’m happy,” she said. Ms Cash said her concerns were prompted by the belief that the substance in the storage tank contained toxic compounds.