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Troy Mills Site Added to National Priorities List (Superfund)

Release Date: 09/26/2003
Contact Information: Alice Kaufman, EPA Community Involvement Office, 617-918-1064

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today added the Troy Mills Landfill in Troy, New Hampshire, to the National Priorities List (NPL), commonly known as the Superfund. The Superfund is EPA's list of the country's hazardous waste sites that have been identified for possible long-term cleanup by the federal government. Superfund makes public funds available to clean up toxic waste sites when private financing is unavailable. The government can later recoup its costs from current and past owners of the property.

"Today's listing ensures that this site will get cleaned up," said Robert W. Varney, EPA New England regional administrator. "We are looking forward to working closely with the community and the state to help us every step of the way.

"I am pleased that the EPA has dedicated significant resources toward the cleanup of this site," said Michael Nolin, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. "We look forward to working with the community and the EPA during this important project to ensure that risks posed by these wastes are reduced and the environment is restored for the benefit of those who live, work, and play in the Troy area."

The Troy Mills Landfill (also called the Rockwood Brook Landfill), which is owned by Troy Mills, Inc., is located about 1.5 miles south of the center of Troy off of a dirt road on the company's mostly wooded 270-acre property. The 11-acre landfill was used from1967 until 2001as an industrial waste disposal area by the owner, a local fabric manufacturer. From 1967 to 1978, two acres were used to dispose of up to 11,000 drums of liquid wastes and sludges containing Varsol, vinyl resins, plasticizers, pigments, top-coating products and industrial organic solvents. After 1978, the remaining nine acres were used to dispose of waste fabric scraps and other solid waste from the company's manufacturing complex. EPA and the state identified elevated levels of metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) leaking from waste at the landfill, endangering the downstream fisheries, recreation areas, and wetlands.

Contaminated leachate has been documented seeping from the landfill into a wetland area that drains to Rockwood Brook. "Free product" was detected at groundwater monitoring locations and wetlands down gradient of the buried drums. EPA is currently constructing an interim system to collect this free product and the state will take over operation of the system. Sand Dam Pond, a recreational pond used for swimming and fishing is located on Rockwood Brook approximately one mile downstream of the landfill.

Troy Mills, Inc. under the supervision of the NH Department of Environmental Services (DES), completed several detailed design studies until the company filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001 and could not follow through with approved cleanup plans.

EPA conducted an Expanded Site Inspection (ESI), including wetland delineation, in October and December 2001. EPA documented contaminated leachate directly discharging to a nearby wetland threatening downstream fisheries, a designated recreation area, and wetlands.