DEP Halts Olin Review
By Alexandra Mayer-Hohdahl, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.
Dec. 13–WILMINGTON, Mass. — The Department of Environmental Protection recently decided to suspend its review of the contaminated Olin Chemical site — a move that will help the town in dealing with New England Transrail’s planned waste-transfer station at the site, Town Counsel Paul DeRensis said.
“(The DEP) is saying that this site is not under control,” DeRensis said at yesterday night’s selectmen’s meeting. “It highlights the fact that there is an impasse … Olin feels that everything is under control, while the DEP feels that more needs to be done.” In a five-page letter addressed to the Olin Corp. and forwarded to state and town officials, the DEP said it suspended its review because the Olin Chemical site is being considered for the National Priorities List, a process that could culminate by April. The list features locations throughout the country that are dealing with hazardous substances, pollutants or contaminants.
But the letter also underlines a basic disagreement that the DEP has had with Olin officials when it comes to addressing contamination issues at the site.
“DEP believes that it is prudent to suspend the review … because Olin’s consulting team and DEP have different technical opinions on how the investigation and remediation should proceed in some parts of the site,” the letter states.
New England Transrail, who is planning to purchase the Olin Chemical site to build a truck-to-rail waste-transfer station, recently refiled a petition with the Surface Transportation Board seeking exemption from state and local laws under the umbrella covering railroads.
In the petition, the New Jersey-based company argues that “the current environmental conditions … at the Olin site do not preclude the development and use of the NET facility.” The petition also notes that the site being added to the National Priorities List “should not prevent the development of the NET facility at the property.” But DeRensis said DEP’s letter says otherwise.
“New England Transrail is saying that the property is safe, but DEP is saying that even areas that have been cleaned up have been re-contaminated,” he said. “There’s an environmental deadlock.” DeRensis said that the town is poised to request a three-week extension from the Surface Transportation Board to file its response to New England Transrail’s petition. The town would normally have 20 days, which would make its response due on Dec. 26.
“(New England Transrail has) had five months, and then they file this thing and say you have 20 days at Christmas,” DeRensis said. “It’s inherently unfair.” In other business, the selectmen agreed to ask the Wilmington Housing Authority to appear in front of the board at its next meeting, after Selectman Michael McCoy brought up a petition that he had received from Deming Way residents.
“Help us to get our safety and peace of mind back and take all our fear away,” the petition, which was compiled by Housing Authority Board Member Dorothy Butler and signed by 38 residents, read.
A man living at Deming Way, a state-run community, has been terrorizing female residents by making sexual advances and breaking into their homes, several town officials have said. The police were called on three separate occasions, the most recent one in late September, when the man was found in his underwear in one of his neighbor’s cars.
“The tenants are scared to death,” Butler said. “We have to go to bed with one ear open because we’re scared that our doors will be broken down.” Several selectmen agreed that the issue, which has been going on for more than a year, should be addressed, even if selectmen do not have jurisdiction over the Housing Authority.
“We represent everybody in the community,” Chairman Ray Lepore said. “That’s what we’re here for.”
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