Cleanup Continues at Durham Superfund Site

The Environmental Protections Agency's (EPA) $6 to 8 million plan to excavate contaminated soil and material from the former Merriam Manufacturing Company property is projected to reach completion by the end of the calendar year, says EPA coordinator Anni Loughlin, but contractors have hit a few road blocks that slowed the project down.

During the manufacturing building's scheduled demolition in June, asbestos was discovered in floor tiles, piping and roofing material as well as Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in window caulking. Loughlin said the state needed to be notified and contractors commenced appropriate procedure for asbestos removal and PCB treatment. Enclosures were erected for the removal process while continuous air sampling took place.

PCBs are man-made, organic chemicals that were widely used in commercial applications before 1979, when a ban on PCBs was established. PCBs could be found in such things as old caulking, oil-based paints, cable insulation and floor finishes and can be released into the environment through illegal or improper dumping of PCB wastes and leaks or releases from electrical transformers containing PCBs. If released into the environment, PCBs are known to cause cancer in animals as well as effect the immune, reproductive and nervous systems of animals.

Loughlin says there was also a good deal of “miscellaneous junk” on the property, such as tanks, drum storage containers, and dozens of tires to consolidate and remove.

The uninhabited residential property at 275 Main St. was found to have a very structurally fragile foundation in the areas where some of the deeper soil excavation would take place. Under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), it was a requirement that the property be assessed by the State Historic Preservation office. Under the NHPA, the house is to remain standing aside from one addition that may be demolished for excavation purposes. Loughlin says that no digging can take place near the property until historic documentation is completed first.

This week, soil sample analyzing should be completed and excavation is scheduled to start the week of August 29.

“There will be a lot of noise, a lot of activity, a lot of trucks coming in out,” said Loughlin. The soil is contaminated by such things as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), leachable lead, as well as metal contamination.

The EPA plans to send the contaminated soil to locations in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and New York.

Loughlin attributes the toxic state of the property to the age of the structure. The building structures on site were erected and operating before environmental precautions were considered, let alone written into law.

The Connecticut Department for Environmental Protection started working with the U.S. EPA after waste leached into the town's water supply, contaminating several private wells.

Loughlin says that the Superfund site will be replenished with new, healthy soil and that reseeding will be completed next Spring if it is too cold to do so in December.

While the project was projected to cost between $6 to 8 million, Loughlin says that, at the time of completion, costs will be closer to $8 million. Contractors Metcalf and Eddy are in charge of the decontamination process on site.

For more information on the project, Anni Loughlin can be reached at loughlin.anni@epa.org.