Source: http://www.southcoasttoday.com, July 11, 2016
By: Mike Lawrence

Energy provider to seek environmental contractor next year, after relocation to business park

Eversource’s announcement last week that it will move next year from its 18-acre site on MacArthur Drive — land slated for the casino bid that abruptly failed last summer — renews questions about cleanup of the contaminated site, just south of downtown.
An Eversource spokesman confirmed Monday that the energy provider intends to clean up its portion of a prominent waterfront site after completing a $15 million relocation, planned for next year.
“We’ll be issuing (a request for proposals) to qualified environmental contractors to remediate the site once we move, and we’ll continue to work with DEP on specifically what needs to be done,” Eversource spokesman Michael Durand said, referring to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
“Before we offer it for sale, we’ll also work with DEP to make sure it meets environmental requirements for (development), as well,” Durand said.
Eversource’s announcement last week that it will move next year from its 18-acre site on MacArthur Drive — land slated for the casino bid that abruptly failed last summer — renews questions about cleanup of the contaminated site, just south of downtown.
Known as the NStar site, the entire, 29-acre parcel was formerly home to a manufactured gas plant and tar processing facility. Eversource uses its portion of the land as its regional hub, with about 180 employees across six buildings. Sprague Energy uses the waterfront portion as a bulk petroleum terminal. The N.H.-based Sprague bought its 11-acre site in 2005.
Bob Blanchard, Sprague’s managing director of business development, said the company plans to continue normal operations and views the Eversource development “in a positive light,” because “it will eventually open up waterfront-dependent redevelopment opportunities.”
Mayor Jon Mitchell said last week that redevelopment of the entire NStar site could involve multiple uses, as the city moves forward with waterfront planning efforts. Durand and Mitchell both said Monday that they had not yet spoken with any potential buyers of Eversource’s parcel.
But cleanup will have to occur before redevelopment, and the cleanup could be messy. A 2009 report by TRC Environmental Corp. of Lowell, prepared for New York-based casino developers KG Urban Advisors, cited significant contamination of soil and groundwater on the site.
Had the casino deal gone through, KG Urban planned to spend about $50 million on a site cleanup, plus up to $15 million to move Eversource facilities elsewhere in the city.
Durand said that while Eversource’s relocation is a different process than envisioned by KG Urban, the $15 million price could turn out to be accurate. Eversource expects its costs for land in New Bedford Business Park, a 200,000-square-foot building and renovations to total about that amount, Durand said.
But KG’s $50 million cleanup estimate included the Sprague parcel, while Durand said Eversource intends to clean up only its own, 18-acre footprint.
“We expect the (cleanup) cost to be significantly less than the estimate that was in their report,” he said.
But Blanchard said that if regulators determine tar residue or other pollutants tied to Eversource extend into Sprague’s property, Eversource could be liable for additional cleanup costs.
“I think the regulators would likely hold Eversource responsible for that, as well, so we’ll just sort that out when the time comes,” Blanchard said. “I think the rules are pretty straightforward.”
That’s a different tenor than Sprague used a decade ago, in a press release announcing its purchase of the site. According to a December 2005 article in The Standard-Times, Sprague said at the time that it was “contractually committed to the remediation of the former power plant” — suggesting legal disputes could unfold alongside cleanup efforts next year.
Separately, Durand said Eversource’s power substation will remain on Pine Street, just south of Eversource’s current operations on the waterfront site.
“To relocate that facility would be a major engineering exercise,” Durand said. “It’s one of our main sources of electricity for New Bedford, and surrounding communities, as well.”