Posted on August 1, 2018 by bmatarazzo
DEEP: Fire didn't affect air, Naugatuck River
BY MICHAEL PUFFER REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
WATERBURY, CT-073018JS21–Waterbury fire fighters were on the scene of a fire at the abandoned factory off Bank Street in Waterbury on Monday night. Jim Shannon Republican American
WATERBURY – Firefighters poured millions of gallons of water on the former Ansonia Copper & Brass building to halt a massive blaze Monday night.
City officials describe the building as contaminated, but, even so, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection sees no indication that any of that pollution impacted air quality or ran off into the nearby Naugatuck River.
The river runs along one edge of the property.
DEEP spokesman Chris Collibee on Tuesday said the agency hadn't done air quality testing during the height of the fire Monday night, but staff did review data from a permanent air quality monitoring station at the nearby corner of Meadow and Bank streets.
That data showed spikes in air pollutants, but nothing that rose above the state's air quality standards, Collibee said.
DEEP staff also didn't see any immediate indication pollutants made it to the Naugatuck River, Collibee said, as there was no oil sheen on the river Tuesday. He said staff would conduct additional investigation.
Kevin Zak, a local Naugatuck River watchdog, also explored the river Tuesday and found no obvious sign of new contamination. Even so, out of "an abundance of caution," he led teens employed by the city's new summertime river cleaning crew to spots on the Mad River Tuesday.
Ansonia Copper & Brass employed about 300 at factories in Ansonia and Waterbury in 2002. By 2008, it was down to 77. The company ceased operations in Waterbury in March 2014.
The following year, the 4-acre property at the corner of Bank Street and Washington Avenue sold to 725 Bank Street Development Inc. for $260,450. Local officials say the manufacturing equipment has been sold off and scrap metal removed by new owners.
Attempts to reach a representative of 725 Bank Street Development were unsuccessful Tuesday. Mayor Neil M. O'Leary said the city had lost touch with the new owners. There had been a lot of environmental cleanup in recent years, however, he noted.
David Poynton, a DEEP emergency response coordinator, said Monday his agency has spent between $80,000 and $100,000 clearing hydraulic oils from the building. The U.S. EPA has spent another $1.4 million cleaning up oils, asbestos and PCBs.
"It's not abandoned," Poynton said. "He's trying to get in here and do scrapping and get the building down."
Poynton said DEEP had issued a cease-and-desist order on the scrapping more than a year ago until the owners could prove all PCBs had been properly removed.
In 2015, DEEP asked the EPA for an intervention under the Superfund program, according to EPA Region I spokeswoman Emily Bender.
The program is used for response when there's concern of releases or threatened releases of substances that could endanger the environment or public health.
In 2016, the federal agency mobilized for a broad cleanup. The effort removed asbestos; pumped oils and sludge from pits; filtered water from treatment tanks; removed sludge; demolished wastewater tanks; and excavated and removed contaminated soils, according to Bender.
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