Derby Aldermen voted Tuesday to pay $675,000 to the federal Environmental Protection Agency to settle a bill the city owed for the removal of PCBs from O’Sullivan’s Island, but no one was jumping for joy in City Hall after the vote.
Absent seceding from the U.S. and establishing the People’s Republic of Derbonia, “it was the best deal we were going to get,” Republican Second Ward Aldermen David Lenart said.
Back in 2008 – 2009, the EPA removed 100 PCB-laden buried drums from O’Sullivan’s Island, as part of a project to restore the city-owned property, which had been used over the years as a dump and a fire department training facility.
The “island” is actually a peninsula where Naugatuck and Housatonic rivers meet under the Route 8 bridge in downtown Derby.
The 2008 – 2009 “removal action” also saw EPA contractors haul away a partially crushed 1,000 gallon underground storage tank at the property, along with some 20 truckloads of contaminated dirt.
The cost for the removal action, originally estimated at $300,000, mushroomed to $4 million because the EPA kept finding more and more contamination.
In 2009, the City of Derby opened O’Sullivan’s Island to the public, touting its natural beauty as a great place to fish and picnic.
However, former Mayor Anthony Staffieri’s administration didn’t pay the EPA, nor tell the city’s Board of Aldermen that the EPA was coming after the city for the $4 million it was owed.
The former administration also did not tell the Aldermen that Derby was paying attorneys anywhere from $175 to $450 an hour to negotiate a settlement with the EPA over the cleanup.
The property has a rich history of toxicity, as detailed in the following timeline. Article continues below:
Mayor Anita Dugatto’s administration and the Valley Council of Governments have been trying to work out a compromise with the EPA since Dugatto learned of the bill after taking office in December.
The Valley Indy first reported that the EPA was threatening to take Derby to court in January.
Derby has the money in hand to pay the EPA $675,000, officials said Tuesday.
The dollar amount was proposed by the EPA, then discussed during a long executive session Tuesday in Derby City Hall. The video below shows the vote Aldermen discussed in executive session, and then made official in public:
Executive sessions are closed to the public, but are allowed in certain circumstances under state law, such as when discussing pending litigation.
The Aldermen voted to endorse the dollar amount, and are relying on the city’s corporation counsel to draft a settlement agreement, which will then be given to the EPA.
The agreement is due by the end of December. The mayor indicated Tuesday the city’s finance board also has to weigh in on the expenditure.
Mayor Dugatto said the settlement is good for the city, because the only other viable option is for the city to fight the EPA in court on a case Derby probably couldn’t win. Furthermore, fighting would expose taxpayers to the full $4 million bill, she said.
Several Derby officials indicated the EPA was less than thrilled about negotiating with Derby because the city had ignored its debt for so long.
Meanwhile, the city is still testing the ground at O’Sullivan’s Island for contamination. The city voted to lose the land to the public in January after the Valley Council of Governments went public with concerns that non-PCB contamination — mainly from the old former fire training school — is still present in the dirt. Some PCBs remain in the ground on the property, too.
A new round of testing was approved last month.
