Source: http://www.nhregister.com, October 1, 2014
By: Luther Turmelle
The Coast Guard is preparing for an environmental cleanup inside the former English Station power plant after oil from the facility apparently went into the Mill River last month.
The Coast Guard was contacted Sept. 15 by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection after several oil slicks were spotted on the river near the plant, which sits on an island, said Cmdr. Jonathan Theel, response chief for the New Haven Coast Guard station.
Although oil was discovered in a catch basin on the island, Theel said it is possible it may not have come from the former power plant or the island.
“It is an industrial area, so it could have come from a number of sources,” he said.
Dennis Schain, a DEEP spokesman, said the state agency contacted the Coast Guard because of the potential that the oil could make its way into Long Island Sound. DEEP is working jointly with the Coast Guard on the clean up effort, he said.
Nevertheless, the Coast Guard considers the oil slicks “a substantial and imminent threat” and has deployed containment and cleanup booms in the river to contain the pollutant, Theel said.
It also investigated the power plant site, including the building where the generators once were located.
The building floor is covered with a film that appears to be from spilled oil, he said. In addition, a number of aging 55-gallon drums of fluid were found.
“We hope to begin cleaning that up over the next several days,” Theel said.
“We want to proceed quickly, but not so quickly that we don’t have time to assess the best way to protect the safety of those performing the cleanup, as well as making sure that we don’t track any contamination from the site outside of it,” Theel said.
The grounds of the former power plant are heavily contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a cancer-causing agent, as well as heavy metals and other contaminants.
The owners of the former power plant, Asnat Realty of New York and Evergreen Power of Wilmington, Maryland, were cleaning up the site several years ago.
That work came to a halt in December 2012 when state Attorney General George Jepsen and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection went to court. They charged that the contractors hired by Evergreen Power and Asnat to do the cleanup weren’t taking the necessary precautions to protect public health and safety.
What started out as litigation between the state and the property owners over the cleanup is now bogged down in mediation, said Dennis Schain, a DEEP spokesman, and Ann Catino, an attorney with Halloran & Sage, a Connecticut law firm representing Evergreen Power and Asnat.
Catino said Wednesday that the “deteriorating environmental condition of the property rests squarely with the United Illuminating Co.”
UI, of Orange, paid another Connecticut company, Quinnipiac Energy, $4.15 million in 2000 to assume ownership of the site and buildings in order to get out from under liabilities that came with the plant, and included funding that was dedicated for environmental cleanup.
“There are a lot of conditions associated with the history of the site that all lead back to UI and the buck stops with them,” Catino said. “They have the technical expertise, the knowledge of the history of the plant to make sure this is done right.”
The current owners bought the site from Quinnipiac Energy in December 2006. UI built the original structures and operated the plant from 1929 to 1992, when it stopped producing electricity there.
James Torgerson, chairman, president and chief executive officer of UI, told a New Haven community forum in June 2010 that the company was willing to be part of a cleanup of English Station if it was determined it was responsible.
Ed Crowder, a UI spokesman, said Wednesday the company’s position “hasn’t changed much” since then.
“If somebody comes forward with a responsible plan to redevelop that site that includes environmental cleanup, we’re willing to be part of it,” Crowder said. “But we haven’t owned the plant for 14 years and we have no way of knowing what has gone on at the site since then.”