Source: http://www.nhregister.com, May 5, 2015
By: Kate Ramunni
Cleanup of the former Upjohn Co. site is progressing, with the majority of the land in the final stages of remediation.
Representatives from Pfizer, which purchased Pharmacia Corporation, including the Upjohn property, in 2003 met with members of the Citizen’s Advisory Panel Tuesday night to update them as to the process of the clean-up, which has been ongoing for several years and is expected to last at least five more years.
The 78-acre property is divided into two sections: the eastern part, made up of 60 acres that will be left open as a nature preserve, and the western section, 18 acres that eventually will be developed.
Clean-up of the 60-acre portion is almost complete, but its planned walking trails won’t be opened to the public for about five years, according to Elaine Richardson, who handles media relations for the project.
For the most part, the landscaping that was installed last fall survived the winter, according to Nick Andreopoulos, Pfizer’s project manager. “The winter wasn’t too bad,” he said. “All the snow and ice helped to stabilize the site and and there was not as much erosion.”
Landscapers are scheduled to return to the site next week to assess what needs to be replaced, he said.
The contaminated soil on the western section is being remediated through a thermal filtration system that heats the ground and filtrates the vapor and steam. The complex system is an alternative to digging out the bad soil and trucking it out west where it is burned, Andreopoulos said. It uses a lot of electricity, he said — an estimated 11 million kilowatt hours, necessitating the addition of an electrical line to the site.
With all the work going on, the site will be closed to the public for the foreseeable future, Richardson said.
“It’s a pretty heavy construction site right now so we’re keeping visitors off,” she said.
Throughout the process, they have been working to keep the public informed as to what’s going on, she said. They maintain a website at www.upjohnnorthhaven.com/index.php that includes the background to the project and updates as to its most recent activity.
A booth at the recent Earth Day Festival attracted a lot of interest, she said, especially from those interested in the trails that eventually will be open to the public. But the hours they are open will be restricted, she said, “so we can protect the preserve.
“We are working out the details now,” she said, but it will likely be five years before they actually open.
But the site is home to osprey that have returned again this year to raise a family, she said. For almost a decade the birds have called the site home, and Pfizer has set up a webcam to allow people to check them out, at www.upjohnnorthhaven.com/osprey_cam.php.
Other wildlife aren’t as welcome, Andreopoulos said. “We see that wildlife is already trying to come back, and we’re trying to deter them, especially the deer and the (Canada) geese,” which have a propensity to eat the vegetation they are trying to grow, he said.
“Deer are tough to keep out,” said CAP Chairman David Monz.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection are overseeing the project, she said. “They’re looking over our shoulders and making sure that we’re doing everything we are supposed to be doing,” she said.
It will be several years before the western section of the site is ready for development, but there have already been a few inquiries about the site, Richardson said. “We have had some general discussions with some New Haven-based developers,” she said, but for those looking to build now, the site won’t be ready in time.
“The question is, who will be interested when we are ready,” she said.