The Higganum Cove Site at 19 Nosal Road consists of 12.8 acres, 9.9 of which are tidal wetlands adjacent to Higganum Creek, approximately 1,200 feet west of the Connecticut River.  The site had been occupied by various manufacturing operations dating back to the 1840s for dyeing of fabrics and yarn, the production of bridge netting, marine paints and mimeograph (carbonless copy) paper.  The last occupant of the site, Frismar, Inc. went out of business in 1983. 

 

Due to reports of inappropriate handling of hazardous materials, DEP and EPA performed several inspections of the property from 1983 to 1989, when a fire destroyed the former mill building.  The property owner, Higganum Cove Inc., retained a contractor to recover scrap brick and metal, but the contractor illegally filled portions of the on-site wetlands with demolition debris, household garbage, and possibly hazardous waste.

 

In February 1991 Higganum Cove, Inc., was issued Order No. SRD-007 to investigate and remediate potential sources of pollution on the property, but did not do the work.  In 1995, the site entered the State Superfund Program.  Site investigations indicated pollution consisted of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, metals, total petroleum hydrocarbons, and PCBs.

 

In 2013 DEEP requested EPA’s Emergency Planning and Response Branch’s involvement in the site and the EPA, DEEP, and Town of Haddam began collaborating on this project in June 2014.  EPA excavated approximately 8,400 tons of contaminated soil in late 2014 and early 2015. 

 

Wetland and upland restoration commenced in late June of 2015, including placement of numerous trees throughout the site, topsoil grading, placement of native plants in the wetland, and hydroseeding of other areas.  These restoration activities should prevent erosion and avoid repopulation of invasive species.  The site is being reused for passive recreation, with plans for interpretative signage and hiking trails.  A car-top boat/kayak launch to access the Connecticut River is also being considered.

 

For more information on the Higganum Cove State Superfund Site, please contact the DEEP Remediation Division Project Manager Craig Bobrowiecki.

The J. Swift Chemical Company recycled solvents in the 1950s and 1960s at a small facility on Route 44 in Canton.  Waste solvent sludges were buried at the site and contamination from a variety of chlorinated and non-chlorinated solvents is present on the site.  In the early 1980s, DEP coordinated the extension of a public water main to serve affected and potentially affected properties, along with a limited emergency removal of impacted soil and drums, with State expenditures of over $1,000,000.

 

The J. Swift Chemical Company is no longer a viable entity.  Despite a 2000 court judgment for enforcement of a DEP order to the present property owner, the owner has not remediated the property, has not paid taxes on the property, and has indicated that it has no assets.  The current property owner is Cadle Company, a large out-of-state land holding company.  The 2000 court action against Cadle resulted in judgment of over $2.1 million to the State.  To date, less than $200,000 has been recovered.  In 1997, a similar Judgment against the former owner, Gianfranco Galluzzo, granted injunctive relief and about $9 million in penalties, with no money collected.  The site is presently leased by Mitchell Volkswagen.

 

Site assessments were performed under DEP State Superfund contracting in 1990 and 2000, to characterize and update information on site conditions.  Total expenditures for those studies were $700,000.  Potential risks to neighboring properties from off-gassing of the contaminated groundwater were identified.  In August 2004, off-site soil vapor and groundwater samples were collected from neighboring commercial and residential properties by DEP to further evaluate the potential risks.  In January 2006, bids were received for the installation of venting systems at six downgradient commercial properties determined to be at long-term risk.  The contract was not awarded due to lack of funds.

 

In 2007, a sub-slab depressurization system was installed at an impacted residence on Old Albany Turnpike.  In 2009, residential wells located beyond the municipal water service on Secret Lake Road were sampled by DEP and found to be potable.  Recently, vapor intrusion measures have been installed on neighboring properties, the cost of which has been borne by the developers of those properties.  In 2013 the site was reassessed.  The remediation of the remaining contamination at the site will be dependent on pending bond funding.  It has been estimated that $4.4 million will be needed to proceed with remediation of solvent contamination. 

The McDonough Expeditionary Learning School is located at 100 Wilson Avenue in Hartford.  The site consists of the school and the J.P. Harbison Playground on approximately 3.75 acres located at the intersection of Wilson Street and Hillside Avenue in Hartford.  The school was originally constructed in 1897 and was last renovated in 1998.  In the early 1900s the site was primarily used for the disposal of incinerator ash, bricks and cinders.  Disposal ceased when the school was constructed.  The former disposal areas are located beneath and to the north end of the existing school structure.  In 1995, the City of Hartford requested authorization from the DEP for facilitation of the construction of an addition to the northern end of the school.  A total of 314 soil samples were analyzed for arsenic, cadmium, lead and/or semi-volatile organic compounds.  Ash and contaminated soils were excavated from the site, stockpiled, tested, categorized by contaminant levels and removed for proper disposal before construction began in 1995.

 

The Broad Brook Mill site was previously referred to as the Millbrook Condominiums site.  The northern portion of the property is developed with structures, including the former residential condominium building (21 units), two garage units, and a former boiler house.  The central and southern portions of Lot 8 are level and overgrown with woody vegetation.  Lot 8A (1.93 acres), in the eastern portion of site along Main Street, slopes west and is occupied by a commercial strip mall with lower level residential units, and a two-story brick office building.

 

Prior to 1835, the property was developed as a grist mill, saw mill, and a tannery.  Between 1835 and 1954, a woolen mill operated on the property.  Other buildings were utilized as a machine shop, a coal gas manufacturing plant, and for warehouse space.  From 1954 to 1967, United Technologies Corporation, Hamilton Standard Division, now known as Hamilton Sundstrand, (Hamilton) manufactured printed circuit boards on the property.  Processes conducted by Hamilton included electroplating; chemical etching; photographic development; parts washing, which utilized chlorinated solvents; a wastewater treatment plant to treat electroplating water; and a boiler house to provide steam and heat in the facility structures.  From 1968 to 1977, a boron filament manufacturing operation was conducted on the property, first by Hamilton from 1968 through 1974, and then continued by Composite Materials, Inc. until 1977.  Building space was leased to other commercial and industrial entities until 1986.  In January 1986, the property was sold to Connecticut Building Corporation.  In May 1986, a fire destroyed many of the mill buildings.  In 1989, the commercial complex on Lot 8A was developed from former mill buildings.  Between 1990 and 1993, the residential condominiums were developed on Lot 8 in the former mill building that had survived the fire.

 

Initial investigation of the presence of contamination on the Broad Brook Mill site began in August 1993.  In November 2003, Hamilton entered into Consent Order SRD-154M with the Department of Environmental Protection for the remediation of the site.  That Consent Order included State funding of up to $3,900,000 for the share of the contamination which pre-dated activities on the site by Hamilton.  In October 2004, the residential units and condominium common property associated with Lot 8 were purchased by Hamilton and Lot 8 ceased to be used for residential purposes.  Excavation of contamination from Lot 8A was completed in 2006.  Following a public hearing on August 30, 2010, the Remedial Action Plan for Lot 8 was approved.  That plan primarily consists of treatment of soil and groundwater impacted by chromium and chlorinated solvents, rendering soils contaminated with ash and coal inaccessible beneath 4 feet of clean fill, and construction of an engineered control along the banks of Broad Brook where ash and coal are exposed.  Implementation of those remedial actions will commence when permitting from the Army Corps of Engineers is received.

 

Additional information is posted on the US EPA web page.

The Mitral Corporation was a machine shop that manufactured metal stamping products, tools, dies, jigs and fixtures.  Spent degreasing solvents, waste oil and scrap metal were generated.  From 1966 until approximately 1976, waste water and cooling water from the operation was discharged to the ground surface and flowed to a small pond west of the building.  In 1976, DEP inspected the site in response to a citizen’s complaint. and issued Order WC-2106, which required the company to install treatment facilities for waste waters and submit an NPDES permit application for the cooling water discharges.  A permit was issued to Mitral in 1977 for a non-contact cooling water discharge to the on-site pond.  Mitral subsequently constructed a settling tank for tumbling waste waters.  Effluent from the settling tank and sanitary wastewater were combined, pumped to the septic system and subsequently discharged to onsite leaching fields.

 

In an inspection conducted by DEP staff in 1988, a septic leaching field to the south of the building was observed to have failed, with sanitary and industrial wastewater being discharged to the ground surface, and drums were being stored improperly along the north side of the building.  Oil-stained areas were observed on the ground surface, and chlorinated solvents, primarily trichloroethene (TCE), were present in the waters being discharged to the ground surface.  As a result, DEP issued Order No. WC-4758 to Mitral in 1988, which required the company to discontinue the release of industrial waste waters to the environment and to investigate the extent and degree of contamination resulting from their disposal practices. DEP issued Order WC-4801 to Mitral in 1989, requiring that the company provide potable water to four impacted residences, perform water supply monitoring at additional properties, and provide additional potable water supplies to such other locations subsequent to DEP’s review of the hydrogeologic study.  Subsequently, Order WC-4801 was amended to require Mitral to provide a potable water supply at additional locations and to provide an alternate potable supply or to provide for ongoing water quality monitoring at thirteen additional properties.

 

In June, 1989 Mitral was referred to the Office of the Attorney General for failure to comply with pollution abatement order and with the potable supply order.  Mitral ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy.  Subsequently, DEP removed approximately one-hundred 55-gallon drums of solvents and other wastes that were stored by Mitral and undertook an investigation of pollution at the site.  DEP began providing bottled water and water filtration systems to residents with affected water supplies.  DEP determined that extending an existing public water supply to the affected area was the best permanent remedy. The water main was completed around 2006.

 

In June 2007, DEP requested that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Site Remediation & Restoration Removal Program Removal program become involved in helping to clean up contaminants at the site. Between 2007 and 2009 EPA demolished the manufacturing building, treated the oil and TCE-contaminated soils or disposed of them off-site, as appropriate, and graded and restored the property with a grass field.  Post-remedial monitoring indicates that the EPA cleanup met its contaminant removal goals.  DEP conducted a post remedial monitoring program in the area to ensure that the goals of groundwater protection have been met.

 

For more information on the Newhall State Superfund Site, please contact the DEEP Remediation Division Project Manager Joanna Burnham.

A welding shop, located at 1100 North Colony Road, once thought to have contaminated a public water supply well because of its solid waste disposal practices, was investigated by DEP.  In 1983 DEP issued Order, WC-3424 to William D. and Catherine M. Phillips, requiring an investigation of the extent and degree of groundwater, surface water and soil contamination at their property and remediation of the contamination that resulted from past disposal activities at the site. They did not conduct the required environmental investigation and remediation of the site.  In March, 1989, DEP concluded that the site represented an unacceptable threat to human health and the environment and subsequently conducted a remedial investigation of the site using state bond funds.  Based on the results of the investigation, the DEP determined that conditions did not warrant the continued remediation of the site under the State Superfund program, and that the necessary additional investigation and remediation could proceed under other existing state regulatory programs.

Raymark Industries Inc. - Waste Disposal Sites, Stratford

Raymark is also a Federal Superfund Site - For more information on the Raymark Site, please contact the DEEP Remediation Division Project Manager Tony Allevo.

In the early 1990s, residential wells in the Rye Hill portion of Somers were found to be contaminated with tetrachloroethylene (PCE).  The source of this contamination was found to be a dry cleaning operation that had been present at the Osborn Correctional Institute a half mile north of the neighborhood.

 

In 1995, sixty-two residences were connected to public water under a Consent Order with the Department of Corrections (DOC).  Six households refused to be connected and have been provided with GAC filters.  Initially, those households, along with an additional 25 residential wells downgradient of the area connected to public water, continue to be monitored by DOC on a regular basis.  Since that time, several of those wells were eliminated from the program as a result of connection to public water or reduction of concentrations to below standards.  In 2000, the area being monitored was expanded slightly to the south due to of additional development.

 

Multiple source areas for the PCE release were identified on the prison grounds, related to the handling of dry cleaning solvents and the former on-site wastewater treatment system.  Several phases of remedial measures have been implemented at the site to prevent further migration of contaminants off the property, removal of contaminated soil, air sparging and venting systems to extract additional solvent below and above the water table, and the injection of chemical reducing agents into the saturated overburden.  As of June 2008, approximately $7,000,000 of State funds has been expended on Somers Water Project. The current groundwater monitoring program is focused on tracking the potential growth of the contaminant plume beyond the area served by public water and the effectiveness of the on-site remedial measures implemented.

 

SRS is also a Federal Superfund Site. For more information on the Solvents Recovery Service State Superfund Site, please contact the DEEP Remediation Division Project Manager Shannon Pociu.

The South Pine Creek site is located in a residential area within one mile of Long Island Sound in Fairfield, Connecticut.  Coal gasification waste was discovered in 1987 during an inspection by the town to evaluate a proposed development plan.  The coal tar waste material was located mainly on a 0.28-acre vacant parcel of land extending onto four adjacent properties (three private residential lots and a town tidal wetland conservation area).  The waste material, a byproduct of coal gas manufacturing, was reportedly placed on the site as fill material during the 1940s.  In 1988 DEP identified coal tar wastes up to three feet thick below the ground surface.  Constituents of concern included complex and amenable cyanide, heavy metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs). 

 

In 1998 coal gasification waste was excavated and removed from the site.  Some areas of fill were left in place because they were distinctively different than the coal tar waste and were identified beneath a layer of soil thereby preventing human direct exposure.  Three years of post-remediation groundwater identified no SVOCs or VOCs in groundwater.  Amenable cyanide, total cyanide, copper and zinc concentrations were reported in excess of the Saltwater Aquatic Life Criteria (SALC).  Other naturally-occurring inorganics were inconsistently reported above SALC.

 

The current monitoring system is insufficient to determine true background levels or conditions at the point of discharge because the area is influenced by tidal fluctuations.  Additionally, the former Fairfield Municipal landfill is located upgradient of the site and other types of fill have been identified in the area.  Based on the above issues and the absence of VOCs and PAHs in groundwater, the results of the post-remediation monitoring are inconclusive.  The DEEP is currently evaluating the groundwater data to determine if further investigation and groundwater monitoring is necessary to bring this site into compliance.

The DEP contracted with Environmental Waste Technology, Inc. (EWT) in October 1996 to complete excavation and proper disposal of coal-tar contaminated soils, bulky wastes, perform other necessary remedial activities, and complete site restoration at the Starr property site, a 44.3 acre parcel of undeveloped property. Remedial activities were performed between October 1996 and June of 1997. 

The Kozikowski property, is located at 309 Town Hill Road in Plymouth had been used as a dairy farm and private residence.  Starting in the late 1970s, a former milking parlor was used for the repair of automobiles and snowmobiles. 1,1,1 Trichloroethane (1,1,1 TCA), a chlorinated solvent, was used to clean parts and disposed of on the ground and to the milking parlor’s floor drain.

 

In June of 1991, a fire destroyed the former milking parlor, apparently resulting in the additional spillage of one to two 55-gallon drums of 1,1,1 TCA.  In April 1993, DEP became aware of potable well contamination in the area.  Sampling determined that a number of water supply wells had been contaminated by 1,1,1 TCA.  DEP initiated a potable water sampling program in the area and provided impacted residences with bottled water and granular activated carbon (GAC) filters.  In 1994, the state issued an Order to the co-owners of the property requiring them to investigate the extent and degree of contamination emanating from the property, to implement remedial measures, and to provide an alternative source of potable water to impacted residences.  As the co-owners of the site appealed the order, the Commissioner authorized the site’s entry onto the State Superfund List in February 1995 to provide for a more timely response to the pollution. 

 

A public water supply was extended to the area in 1999-2000, and approximately thirty affected and at-risk residences were connected to public water at a cost of approximately $1.3 million dollars.  An additional expenditure of approximately $1.1 million dollars was used to perform an environmental investigation at the site and its vicinity and to initiate remediation.

 

In adjudicated hearings of the administrative order in 2000, the co-owners were held responsible for pollution at and emanating from the site and a Lien was placed on the land records to reimburse the State’s costs.  The residence and outbuildings on the property have been demolished and the property is vacant. 

The Tylerville State Superfund Site is located along Bridge Road and is bordered to the west by Saybrook Road and to the east by the Connecticut River.  In the early 1980s, the Department became aware of several potable wells in Tylerville that were contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including trichloroethene, 1,1,1-trichloroethane, tetrachloroethene, at concentrations exceeding drinking water action levels.  The Department issued orders to abate pollution to several entities at that time.  However, groundwater contamination in area potable wells has persisted despite remedial actions performed on some properties, prompting DEP to include the Tylerville site on the State Superfund Priority List.  More recently, 1,4-dioxane was detected in water from several residential potable wells in conjunction with historic solvent releases, and methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), a former gasoline additive, has been found in potable wells serving five commercial business properties as well as some residences.

 

DEEP completed a water supply extension on behalf of the Town of Haddam to serve the affected area in January 2020 and individual water service connections are nearly complete.  In addition, the Department is pursuing enforcement actions to compel investigation and remediation of pollution sources at two sites in Tylerville.  A 2013 Stipulated Judgment requires The Sibley Company to investigate and remediate pollution at its site.  The Storage Tank & PCB Enforcement Unit entered into a Consent Order with Mercury Fuel in 2012 to investigate and remediate pollution at the gasoline station located at 1598 Saybrook Road.  The Remediation Division is also completing a regional groundwater investigation in Tylerville utilizing State Superfund monies in order to determine whether other pollution sources exist in the area.

 

For more information on the Tylerville State Superfund Site, please contact the DEEP Remediation Division Project Manager Shannon Pociu.

Content Last Updated June 13, 2024