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EPA / NH DES To Demolish Former Fletcher's Paint Works Building

Release Date: 10/23/2000
Contact Information: Peyton Fleming, EPA Press Office (617-918-1008)

BOSTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services announced plans to demolish the former Fletcher's Paint Works building located in Milford, New Hampshire. EPA will undertake an estimated $500,000 cleanup early this winter. The building sits on the Elm Street portion of the Fletcher's Paint Works and Storage Facility Superfund Site.

"Demolition of the building is the first step in EPA's overall cleanup plan for the site," said Mindy S. Lubber, the EPA's New England administrator. "Our decision to move forward with this piece of the cleanup is heightened by the fact that within a few hundred feet of this unsafe building are three elementary schools and it's abutting sidewalk is heavily trafficked by children going to and from school."

The demolition work includes fencing to secure the entire area, clearing of trees on the property, demolition of the building and off-site disposal of the debris, removal of two oil tanks located in the building and two underground storage tanks located under the abutting sidewalk, and a temporary capping restoration of the area.

EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers recently toured the former facility and determined that because of numerous cracks in the walls, the potential presence of asbestos material, combined with flat roofs, no heat and obvious leaks, there is a high potential for the dilapidated building to collapse.

The overall cleanup plan, outlined in the 1998 Record of Decision for the site will also include the excavation and treatment of PCB contaminated soils at both the Fletcher Elm and Mill Street locations, excavation and disposal of VOC contaminated soils, removal of several large underground storage tanks at the Elm Street property, and construction of an asphalt cap to keep water from moving through contaminated soil and contributing to the groundwater problem. In addition, contaminated groundwater will be monitored until cleanup levels are met in the future.

The Fletcher's Paint Site was placed on the EPA's National Priorities List in 1989, making it eligible for federal funding to address PCB contamination at the site. So far, previous actions taken at the site include the removal of 893 drums and placement of a temporary cover over highly contaminated soils the demolition and disposal of the former storage shed and its contents. In addition, in 1995 EPA ordered General Electric to excavate and dispose of PCB contaminated soils located on residential properties across from the Mill Street Site. In 1997, GE voluntarily removed PCB contaminated soils from in front of the Elm Street cemetery.

The site is the former location of the Fletcher's Paint Works which manufactured and sold water-based latex paints and organic chemical-based solvent paints from 1949 to 1991 at it's Elm Street location. The Fletcher's Paint Storage area on Mill Street, consisted of a wooden storage building that housed pigments used to produce paints.