The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has gained access through a court order to a piece of land in Wilton that was the disposal site for chemicals used by the Abbott Machine Company decades ago, in order to test it for potential contamination.
Conservation Commission Chair Jennifer Beck said EPA officials have already made their first visit to the site, along with town representatives from multiple boards, including the Select Board, Planning Board, Economic Development Leadership Team and Conservation Commission, and testing on the property and at sites above and below it along Stony Brook is expected to occur over the next several months.
Last year, the state arm of the EPA confirmed through documentation during a brownfields assessment, funded through a National Regional Planning Commission grant, that there are steel drums of sodium cyanide buried in a concrete bunker on the property. Brownfields are sites with the potential for redevelopment, but which may contain hazardous materials from previous uses, such as industrial business.
Sodium cyanide can be hazardous when breathed in, ingested or absorbed through the skin or eyes. Contact can irritate the skin and eyes, and breathing it in can cause headaches, dizziness, fast heartbeat, unconsciousness or death. Exposure can cause enlarged thyroid, damage to the nervous system and changes in blood-cell count. Repeated low exposure can cause nose discharge, nosebleeds and sores in the nose.
Beck said the site is of interest to town, as it runs alongside the River Walk, an ongoing project to create a walkable route through the downtown and along the river route. Specifically, the town has been interested in using the property – which is only a fraction of an acre – to build a concert pavilion. However, the property, which is adjacent to the police station and town-owned land, has a murky ownership history. A previous EPA report states that the land was once owned by the Abbott Machine Company, which is no longer in operation. The assets of the company were transferred to a trust when the company closed, but the trust has since been dissolved, but the assets, including the land, weren’t transferred to any other entity. Despite no one paying taxes on the land for years, it has not been officially taken by the town.
With no official owner to request access from, the EPA had to seek – and this month, was granted – an ex parte warrant from the court system, and has gained access to the property for the purpose of assessment for 180 days.
“We know it’s buried there. We don’t know its status,” Beck said.
Beck said the area has been tested in the recent past, but not shown signs of any leakage, but it is an area of concern because of its proximity to the waterway. She said the most-likely outcome if there is no sign that contamination has leaked beyond the concrete bunker is for the barrels to stay in place. However, she said if that potential hazard remains, the town will likely be looking elsewhere for a potential concert pavilion site.
“I think the town would be unlikely to want to take that property, because of any liability that might exist in the future,” Beck said. “We are rethinking where our concert pavilion might go because of that. If they do decide to mitigate that site and remove the barrels, we might be looking at a different situation.”
Beck said the Economic Development team is now considering an alternative spot, still in the same area, on town-owned land further behind the police station near the river bend, which is away from the potential contamination site and also the Island Street intersection traffic noise.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.