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The Factory H Site is located in a mixed residential and commercial zoned area. It is part of the former “International Silver Company” (original site) which is comprised of approximately 7.2 acres. Three buildings currently remain on the foot print of the original site. A fourth building was destroyed by fire in 1980 and subsequently demolished. The three existing buildings consist of Building A, a 76,000 square foot (ft2); Building B, a 900 ft2 two-story transformer/electrical house constructed over Harbor Brook; and Building C, a 3,600 ft2 two-story power plant and boiler house east of Harbor Brook. The former fourth building, Building D, was a series of three buildings in the northeast corner of the Site consisting of a 22,000 ft2 machine shop facility, a 6,000 ft2 foundry facility, and a 1,700 ft2 pattern shop. Other structures currently located on the Site consist of two bridges crossing the Harbor Brook and an inactive water tower.
The Factory H Site is the 76,000 ft2 building (Building A). The building is made up of three connected multi-story buildings. The major portion of the building is a one story saw-tooth style building and has an approximately 5 foot deep sub floor. The other portions of the building are made up of a two story and four story sections. The greater portion of the floors is made of wood. The others are concrete. There are many openings in the floors where the sub floor is exposed, thus making the floors structurally unsafe. These openings are a result of the former machinery being removed by the previous owners. The floor openings have gotten larger through the years because the sections of glass ceiling of the saw-tooth portions of the roof are missing. This allowed many years of precipitation to enter the building, damage the floors and fill the sub-floor areas with water. A portion of the fourth floor of the four story section is structurally unsafe because an area of the floor is missing as well. In addition to the above, most of the glass windows are either missing or broken from vandalism activities.
Currently there is a fence around the building and entrances to the building are locked. However, general public access is unrestricted as evidenced by the presence of burned debris piles within the building in addition to graffiti inside and outside of the building.
According to the EPA Region 1 Environmental Justice Mapping Tool, the Site is in an environmental justice area.
On July 25, 2007, the EPRB and its Technical Assessment and Response Team, Weston Solutions, Inc., conducted a Preliminary Assessment and Site Investigation (PA/SI). The PA/SI included sampling floor debris and pipe insulation material that had fallen on the floors for asbestos content. In addition, the debris on the floors was sampled for heavy metal content (lead). Thirty nine samples were collected in total. From those samples, twenty one were analyzed for asbestos and 18 were analyzed for lead content. The chemical analysis for the asbestos revealed that all but two samples contain amosite and chrysotile asbestos with the highest concentration of 45% chrysotile. All of the samples analyzed for lead, revealed lead levels ranging from 450 mg/Kg to 6,600 mg/Kg.
The PA/SI was concluded and based on Site conditions and preliminary analytical results, a time critical removal action was recommended in a closure memorandum dated August 27, 2007. The request for a Removal Action Memorandum was signed by the EPA Region 1 OSRR Director on September 25, 2007.
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