BOSTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is launching a cleanup this week at a Tiverton property contaminated with mercury as a result of the operations of a hat factory on the site about 100 years ago.
The site, labeled “A Connell Street,” is part of a large suspected fill area where the state Department of Environmental Management is overseeing a large-scale investigation by the New England Gas Co. of about 100 properties, the EPA said.
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The gas company is investigating the contamination caused by coal gasification waste historically buried in the area. The “A Connell Street” property, which contains a single-family house, was the first to indicate mercury contamination.
But Frank Gardner, one of the EPA staff coordinating this week’s cleanup, said the mercury contamination appeared to be localized to the area near the house.
“Because the nature and origin of this contamination sets it apart from the larger investigation underway in the Bay Street Area, DEM requested that EPA address the clean up of this property immediately,” Gardner said in a news release. “This action is separate from the work being done by DEM in the Bay Street Area.”
As part of the cleanup efforts, EPA said it will conduct additional soil sampling to identify the limits of the mercury contaminated soil, excavate the contaminated surface soils and ship them off-site for safe disposal at a facility licensed to handle hazardous waste, effectively cap contaminated soils in place which may remain at depth, backfill the excavated area with clean fill and restore areas disturbed by site activities.
Gardner and Tom Condon, EPA’s on-scene coordinators from the Superfund removal program, will be managing the cleanup on a day-to-day basis.
