Background
The Associated Electric Site (the
Site) is approximately 9.5-acres located at 171 West Main Street in a
suburban/residential area in Hillsborough, NH including
three wood-framed buildings on concrete slab-on-grade, with metal roofs and
metal siding.
Associated Electric repaired
industrial electric and mechanical equipment, machine parts, rewinding
turbines, generators, and motors. The Site is surrounded by an abandoned
residential property to the west (near the capped Hillsboro Municipal Solid
Waste Landfill by woods), to the east by Site are commercial properties, and to
the south by West Main Street near commercial properties and the northern bend
of the Contoocook River. From 1920 to the 1980s, the Site contained a laundromat
which added dry cleaning operations in the 1970s. In the early 1980s, Hillsboro
Laundry and Cleaners closed. In 1983, Associated Electric Company leased a
portion of the property. In 1996, Rosewald Industries, LLC, purchased the
property from a former President of Hillsboro Laundry and Cleaners and
Associated Electric, a previous tenant of Hillsboro Laundry, continued its
tenancy and activities as a former operator until 2002 and later dissolved. The
property owner, Rosewald Industries, LLC, also dissolved in September of 2004.
Currently, one of the three buildings serves as a storage building for the
town, while hazardous substances in drums and containers containing oils, mixed
and remain from the previous owner and operator.
In June 2022, the Site property was taken by the town of
Hillsborough, due to tax foreclosure. In May through September 2023, a Limited Phase II Environmental Site
Assessment was conducted to investigate groundwater, surface water, stormwater,
sub-slab vapor, and indoor air, as well as a ground penetrating radar survey. On October 16, 2023, NHDES requested EPA’s
assistance to remove drums and containers filled with unknown substances
believed left on-site by the previous owner and operator.
Between February 27-29, 2024, EPA mobilized to
the Site to conduct representative sampling of the drums and containers and
soil gas sampling.
Current Site Status
EPA and its contractors mobilized to the site on August 26, 2024 to address drums and containers on the Site.
