The state health department is advising the City of Derby to keep people off the grass on O’Sullivan’s Island until someone can figure out whether the ground is still polluted and, if so, to what extent?
Derby Aldermen closed O’Sullivan’s Island in January, after concerns about contamination possibly still in the ground were made public.
The paved portions of the land — specifically, a section of the Derby Greenway that crosses a snippet of the property — can be reopened, health officials told members of the O’Sullivan’s Island Advisory Committee Wednesday.
On Thursday, the Aldermen voted to follow the health department’s advice by re-opening “phase three” of the Greenway, which is paved, but keeping the majority of the O’Sullivan’s Island closed until further notice.
Background
O’Sullivan’s Island is a peninsula that juts out into the Naugatuck and Housatonic rivers under the Route 8 bridge. It’s a picturesque meadow that has become a popular fishing, boating and picnic spot in the summer months.
Contractors for the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection trucked away hundreds of PCB-laden 55-gallon drums and soil contaminated with PCBs on O’Sullivan’s Island in 2009.
But the EPA action dealt only with PCBs.
Derby and state environmental regulators have no documentation as to any other contaminants in the ground after the EPA cleanup, specifically on the portion of the property that was used for decades as a firefighter training school.
That part of the island was used as a staging area for the EPA PCB cleanup, according to the Valley Council of Governments.
Contamination at the fire training portion of the property — including volatile organic chemicals such as xylene and chlorobenzene — had been documented at the fire training facility before the EPA cleanup.
But there is no account of what happened to that contamination once the EPA left.
The issue surfaced in the transition between former Mayor Anthony Staffieri’s administration and new Mayor Anita Dugatto’s administration. On a related note, Derby has never reimbursed the EPA for removing the PCBs, and the federal agency has threatened a lawsuit, a fact that was kept from both the Board of Aldermen and the public until Dugatto took office.
The Valley Indy published an extensive report on O’Sullivan’s Island in January. Click here to read it.
Dugatto’s administration wants to do more soil testing to answer any questions about contamination on O’Sullivan’s Island and to get the site off the state’s “significant environmental hazard” list.
It would allow Derby to obtain grant money awarded but never received because Derby has never proved to the state that the site has been cleaned to state standards.
New Developments
At the O’Sullivan’s Island Advisory Committee meeting Wednesday, Meg Harvey and Ken Foscue from the state Department of Health reviewed a draft fact sheet on O’Sullivan’s Island. The four-page document has background on the issue, details what past pollution has been found there and then offers some of the following questions and answers:
Click here to read the final version of the document.
Q: “IS THE GREENWAY TRAIL SAFE?”
A: “Yes. State and local health officials recommend to the City that the greenway trail could be re-opened. Unpaved areas of O’Sullivan’s Island will remain closed until soil testing confirms that they are safe. Until this new testing has been completed, visitors should observe the snow fencing in place on O’Sullivan’s Island and stay on the paved path.”
Q: “I FREQUENTLY VISITED O’SULLIVAN’S ISLAND TO FISH AND HIKE. HAVE I BEEN EXPOSED TO SOMETHING HARMFUL? WILL I GET SICK?
A: “It is unlikely that anyone visiting the site has been exposed to chemicals in the soil at high enough levels to cause health problems.”
Harvey told members of the advisory committee that although health department officials do not think the property poses a threat to public health, they can’t say that for certain until Derby does more testing.
The health officials said that the types of contamination suspected to be in the ground would pose a threat if people were exposed to them constantly for long periods of time. The situation would be different if O’Sullivan’s Island was someone’s backyard, they said.
From the draft fact sheet: “At the O’Sullivan’s Island site, the only way you could be exposed is through direct contact with contaminated soil. This could occur from touching the soil or more importantly, getting contaminated soil on your hands/fingers and then putting your hands/fingers into your mouth. Breathing soil dust is another way to be exposed but because the area is vegetated, this is a less important way to be exposed.”
Click here for the final version of the fact sheet.
A draft of the brochure is published below:
Draft DPH Flier by ValleyIndyDotOrg
NOTE: THE VALLEY COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS MARCH 3 SENT ALONG THE FINAL DPH FACT SHEET.
HERE IT IS:
O’Sullivan’s Island Fact Sheet by ValleyIndyDotOrg
Still open questions for Derby — how to fund the soil testing and just how long O’Sullivan’s Island will be closed?
Gene DiGiovanni, a member of the O’Sullivan’s Island Advisory Committee, repeatedly pointed out Wednesday that the site becomes very active in the summer since it’s right on the rivers — and that is won’t be easy to keep the public off the property.
Rick Dunne, executive director of the Valley Council of Governments, estimated the property will off limits to the public until “probably after the summer.”
Dunne also estimated that the soil assessment will probably cost between $200,000 and $300,000. His organization is looking for permission to use two grants to fund the assessment, along with some Valley COG money.
“Our intention is to cover all your costs,” Dunne told tax board chairman Jim Butler Wednesday.
The cost of actually cleaning the site is a whole other ball of wax, depending on what is found, if anything.
Alderman Peter Olenoski touched upon a subject that has been brought up several times by members of the public — if there were questions about pollution at O’Sullivan’s Island, why didn’t anyone, from state environmental officials down the line, open their mouths?
“No one’s come down. No regulators have said you can’t go down there,” Olenoski said.
Dunne said he advised former Mayor Staffieri the day the site was opened to close it for further testing. Dunne sent several memos to the Staffieri administration, but those memos were not shared with the public or the Aldermen until Dugatto took office.
Art Bogen, Valley COG’s environmental planner, also tried to provide an answer as to Olenoksi’s questions.
“It’s a question of how much enforcement should have been done/could have been done. I can’t answer that … I’m not the regulator,” Bogen said.
Bogen said the question now is whether Derby wants to “respond to what you know,” or not do anything because they aren’t being ordered by the state.
Click the play button below to listen to part of a discussion between Olenoski, Dunne, Alderman Art Gerckens, Bogen and Derby corporation counsel Kevin Blake.
