Skybel site cleanup complete

Published on 5/14/2003

By GRETTA NEMCEK

nemcek@poststar.com

GREENWICH-- Land at the former Skybel Tissue site has been given a clean bill of health from the federal government, which spent $500,000 removing leaking drums filled with chemicals once used at the former paper mill.

"There is no longer an environmental threat there," said Leo Rosales, the community involvement coordinator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Hudson Riverfield office.

"The drums are out; whatever contaminated material that was there was taken out; and whatever structures that were there that were about to fall have been demolished."

An August 2002, arson prompted the EPA, at the request of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, to evaluate the site for a Superfund cleanup - in which a trust fund is set up to pay for the cleanup of the hazardous waste.

The decontamination accelerated when the EPA found that one of the 124 55-gallon drums filled with acids, caustic substances, oils, solvents and oxidizers were leaking into the ground.

"We have these long-term cleanups like the Hudson, but we also have these time-critical cleanups," Rosales said. "We go in, we clean it up as soon as possible and we leave."

The Skybel Tissue area, which sits on the banks of the Batten Kill, is often used as a fishing site by village residents, despite the fact that it's private property.

Over the course of three months, the EPA removed the 124 drums and 20 smaller containers filled with hazardous liquids, as well an underground fuel oil tank and three PCB-filled transformers. The agency also disposed of two large oil heat-exchangers that had insulation containing 80 percent asbestos.

In addition, the EPA disposed of approximately 200 tons of oil-contaminated soil, 1,765 gallons of PCB fluids and 175 empty 55-gallon drums. The agency also demolished the water tower, removed debris, and removed the remains of a building whose snow-covered roof collapsed during the cleanup process.

"The EPA has done a tremendous job of cleaning that whole area up, including the contaminated soil there," said Greenwich Fire Chief Corey Hopkins.

EPA attorneys are still looking into who will be handed the $500,000 cleanup bill, Rosales said.

"Usually the way the process works is we don't wait to get that money from the property owner or the responsible party when there's a public health issue," Rosales said. "We take care of it, pay for it and then find the responsible party and bill them."

Rosales said if the property owner is unable to pay, the EPA will have to pay for it.

http://poststar.net/stories/news_local_story.asp?storyid=66152