Curlena MacDonald grills UI’s CEO.
A top United Illuminating official promised to clean up the mess the company left behind at a Fair Haven power plant — maybe.
UI CEO Jim Torgerson addressed a question at a feel-good open house event hosted by the utility Tuesday evening at the Conte/ West Hills School in Wooster Square. The event was the latest in a UI road show to reconnect with the 17 municipalities it serves. UI saved New Haven — the place where it has had the most friction over rate hikes and a corporate exodus from downtown — for last.
Tuesday marked the first time Torgerson has appeared publicly in New Haven with Mayor John Destefano since May 2009, when the mayor gave him a verbal thrashing and offered to take him to UI’s abandoned power plant so he could see the damage the utility had done. (Click on the play arrow to watch the confrontation.)
This time, DeStefano gave Torgerson a warm welcome, then left the event.
When the CEO opened the floor for questions, Dwight activist Curlena McDonald (pictured at the top of the story) raised her hand. She asked about English Station, the abandoned power plant at 510 Grand Ave. UI burned coal and oil at the power plant for 63 years, until 1992. In 2000, it paid a limited liability corporation to take the property and clean it up.
McDonald said her children are now suffering from the pollution left by the waste. She asked what UI plans to do with the land.
The clean up was never done, admitted Torgerson. He spoke with a microphone clipped to his tie, his voice amplified to an audience of 70 UI customers and staff in the school cafeteria.
Melissa Bailey Photo
Torgerson (pictured at Tuesday night’s meeting) explained that UI got rid of the power plant 10 years ago.
“We paid someone to take it,” he recalled. He said UI spent about $4 million to get rid of the land, and put aside $2 million into a trust fund to clean up the polluted soil. English Station’s new owners, Quinnipiac Energy, tried unsuccessfully to reuse the power plant, then sold it to Evergreen Power LLC and Asnat Realty LLC. The money in the trust fund was spent, Torgerson said, but most of it went to investigating how polluted the site was.
“Very little of it has been cleaned up,” he conceded.
McDonald said that needs to be addressed.
“We are concerned about our lives and the future of our kids,” she pleaded.
“You are here on the same day that people are catching hell over in the Gulf for the same thing,” McDonald said, “a business that has been trusted to do what they are supposed to do, and yet at the same time people’s lives are being affected and devastated. Not only the people, but the animals and all of the other good stuff that’s around it.”
“Energy costs more than just money,” she concluded.
“We recognize our responsibility,” Torgerson replied.
He added a caveat: “We don’t own that plant, and we don’t even have the right to walk on that plant right now.”
Torgerson (pictured) pledged to clean up English Station — “if we are responsible” to do so.
“I’ve talked to the mayor about this. And I’ve told him, to the extent that it needs to be cleaned up and it’s our responsibility, we will do it,” he said.
McDonald repeated his conditional—“if” UI is responsible. She asked Torgerson to let the community know if it has cleaned up the plant.
After the hour-long forum, Torgerson was asked to expand on his answer.
UI has admitted in a federal filing that it may still be on the hook for the cleanup if the current owners fail to get it done. How much responsibility does UI have for cleaning up the site?
Torgerson said UI would clean up all the pollution left in the soil. But “we haven’t been able to get on the property in a long time,” he said.
What steps is UI taking to ascertain what pollution remains?
“We’ve talked to the mayor. We’ve talked to the people who own it,” Torgerson said, “but not in the last couple of months.”
Reached Wednesday morning, Mayor DeStefano said he’s “encouraged” by Torgerson’s remarks.
“They have been much more forthcoming about this recently than they have been in the past,” the mayor said of UI officials.
“My sense of the deal is it’s important to reuse English Station. The issue is whether it will be commercial or residential use. UI has expressed that there are some responsibilities there. I’m encouraged by that. I feel these have been constructive discussions. “
Torgerson said Tuesday night that he has come across the mayor fairly frequently since their sidewalk showdown last year. Both are on the board of the Regional Growth Partnership business association.
The mayor gave him a brief, warm introduction. He likened Tuesday’s meeting to a Mayor’s Night Out, where the mayor and his top staff show up in a city neighborhood to answer people’s questions. DeStefano joked Torgerson doesn’t deal with potholes, but the CEO would be glad take any complaints about tree trimming.
The two scheduled a debriefing meeting Wednesday morning about how Tuesday night’s hearing went.
“It’s been a little while since I’ve talked to [DeStefano] about” the plant, Torgerson added, “but to the extent that we’re responsible, we’ll take care of our responsibilities.”