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EPA Plans Active Construction Season at Two Sites in Baldwinville, MA

Release Date: 04/12/2005
Contact Information:

Contact: David Deegan, EPA Office of Public Affairs, (617) 918-1017, [email protected]

For Immediate Release: April 12. 2005; Release # dd050402

EPA contractors have returned to Baldwinville, MA to continue work on residential properties near the former Temple Stuart facility and will soon begin a $720,000 cleanup of the nearby Baldwinville Products, Inc. located on Mill St. in Templeton, MA.

Last year, EPA oversaw the excavation of PCB-contaminated soil from 26 properties located near the former Temple Stuart facility. EPA contractors began last week to restore these properties including evaluating each property and backfilling the properties with sand and loam. As part of the restoration activities, EPA will be hydro-seeding and planting trees and shrubs. In addition, EPA will be excavating PCB-contaminated soil from an additional 22 properties. These properties, which are located further away from the Temple-Stuart facility than the first group, were sampled in fall 2004. Although the sampling results show that PCB concentrations in surface soils decrease as the distance from the facility increases, the levels were found to be higher then acceptable for residential properties in Massachusetts. To date, EPA has spent more than $2.5 million on the residential cleanup program.

“We are making great progress on this project and hope to have the original properties restored by the end of the spring, said Mike Barry, EPA’s On-Scene Coordinator who is managing the project.

The 110-acre Baldwinville Products, Inc. facility is a former paper mill which was abandoned in the mid 1990s. Since that time, several fires have occurred at the site, including a four alarm fire which broke out on Jan. 1, 2005. The site includes four mill buildings and a warehouse which are in disrepair. The buildings contain friable asbestos material and approximately 100 drums, 40 above ground storage tanks and two large vats used in the manufacturing processes at the former mill. Numerous containers and cylinders are also stored in the buildings on site. Elevated levels of lead and arsenic have been found in the surface soils on site.

Beginning next week, EPA contractors will remove drums and containers from the buildings. The drums and containers will be characterized and disposed of at an EPA approved facility. Asbestos removal will begin after the drums and containers are addressed. Asbestos containing debris will be loaded into lined dump trailers before being transported off site for disposal at an EPA-approved facility. The asbestos containing demolition debris will be wetted down to minimized fugitive dust and air monitoring will be conducted during the removal activities to protect surrounding residents.

“The public is reminded not to trespass on the site, said Mike Nalipinski, EPA’s On-Scene Coordinator overseeing the cleanup of the mill. “Surface soils are contaminated with lead and arsenic and the buildings are in an advanced state of disrepair.”

For more information on two projects, go to:
www.epaosc.net/BaldwinvilleResidentialPropertiesMA
www.epaosc.net/BaldwinvillePaperProductsMA

 Related Information:
Cleanup Process
Cleanup in New England
PCB's