The president of the city’s Board of Aldermen is questioning the wisdom of building a housing development on an old rubber dump next to a gun range.
“These are things that need to be investigated,” Alderman President Stephen Blume said. “Something was hidden.”
Blume, who lives on Hoinski Way, made his comments at the Monday meeting of the Ansonia Planning and Zoning Commission.
The commission is considering an application from White Hills, LLC for four single-family houses on a 4‑acres on Hoinski Way, not far from the Ansonia Rod and Gun Club.
The land in question has 20,000 cubic yards of rubber waste buried under the surface. However, the developers said the rubber won’t pose a threat to property owners, based on past studies done at the site.
The state Department of Environmental Protection said it is OK to build on the site as long as the construction doesn’t take place in the specific places where the old rubber lies.
Click here to read our previous story.
However, Blume, reading from the minutes of a June Planning and Zoning Commission, cited testimony from fellow Aldermen a fire commission chairman Gene Sharkey.
According to the minutes, Sharkey said the former landfill had many fires in the 1950’s, and raised the question of the buried materials being hazardous to the environment.
Blume additionally submitted a letter from David McKeegan, of the DEP’s Waste Engineering and Enforcement Division.
The letter said an engineering consultant contacted McKeegan in July 2007 to inquire about the process for relocating the disposal area to an adjacent location.
McKeegan’s response was that the “siting” of a new solid waste disposal area is an involved process and would most likely result in a denial of the application.
McKeegan’s letter additionally said if the current property owner is interested in removing the disposal area it should be discussed with the town and Department of Environmental Protection to determine the appropriate approvals at state and local levels.
Attorney Steve Bellis, representing White Hills Homes, LLC addressed soil testing, fire protection and resident’s activities during his summation.
Bellis said soil testing was conducted on the area using 17 borings.
Those samples showed that the rubber — previously thought to be two-to-three feet below the surface — are actually 9.5 feet to 14 feet below the ground. He added soil samples were tested for volatile compounds, but no hazardous materials were found.
“There is no rubber situation at two feet,” he said. “It is much deeper than that.”
Bellis said rubber samples retrieved from underground were fire tested.
“Fire potential is extremely low,” he said.
The discussion on the application will be continued at the next Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.
