UI Agrees To Confront Public On English Station Cleanup

A regional utility company is finally ready to start hauling toxic dirt from the contaminated site of two long-defunct Fair Haven power plants.

But there’s one more task the company has to complete before it can begin this latest stage of environmental remediation: It has to actually talk with the public about what it’s doing, and why.

The City Plan Commission gave those marching orders to United Illuminating (UI) on Wednesday night during a review of the regional utility company’s site plan, soil erosion, and sediment control proposals for the next stages of its clean up of Union Station. The review took place during the commission’s regular monthly meeting on the second floor of City Hall.

Shawn Crosbie, the project manager for UI’s $30 million environmental remediation of the derelict power plants, and Carl Stopper, a project manager with the engineering company TRC, presented commissioners with UI’s detailed next steps for environmental remediation at the 510 Grand Ave. power plant site.

Those include the excavation and off-site disposal of PCB-impacted soil, the construction of soil and asphalt caps for the on-site relocation of contaminated soil, and the demolition of the older, two-story, former coal-burning plant that abuts Grand Avenue.

But the commission, led by Chair Ed Mattison and encouraged by city staff, decided to delay signing off on the company’s clean up plans until UI hosts another public information session with Fair Haven neighbors about what remediation work has happened so far, what contamination UI has found at the site, and what the company plans to do next. The last time UI hosted a community information session on the English Station clean up was in June 2017, over a year-and-a-half ago.

“Nothing is worse than a large public project where it appears that everything is being done behind closed doors,” Mattison said. ​“Public confidence is what makes it possible to go forward.”

Crosbie agreed to reach out to neighborhood alders, management teams, and concerned organizations like the Urban Design League and set up a public information meeting for sometime before next month’s City Plan Commission meeting.

“We felt the website was a good opportunity” to share updates with the public about what is going on at the site, Crosbie said, referencing this UI website that provides detailed background and updates on the English Station clean.

But after the commissioners’ insistence that they and every member of the public they have spoken with are frustrated with UI’s lack of community outreach, Crosbie conceded. ​“We’ll agree to have a public meeting,” he said.

PCB Soil Clean Up

Crosbie and Stopper explained that UI is prepared to begin remediation of soil that has been impacted by PCBs and other metals thanks to many decades of coal and oil burning at the site. The utility company also plans to demolish the older ​“Station B” (pictured at the top of this article), which the city has determined to be structurally unsound and in danger of collapse.

The City Plan staff report on UI’s application describes the company’s proposed remedial activities as including:

• The excavation and off-site disposal of PCB-impacted soil and surplus non-PCB-impacted soil, sediment, and porous materials;
• The collection of soil samples for further PCB and non-PCB-impacted soil analysis;
• Dewatering and removal of sentiment from the cooling water tunnel;
• Preparation of sub-grade and on-site relocation of soils in areas of capping;
• Construction of soil and asphalt caps to render soils inaccessible;
• The restoration of soil excavation areas and the cooling tunnel with suitable backfill soil.

Cropper explained that UI will be reducing the impervious area on the site from 6.9 acres to 4.55 acres.

The staff report on the application notes that UI plans to move 27,700 cubic yards of soil. Pending approval from the commission, UI planned to start the soil remediation in March and planned to finish by November.

“The remainder of the site is still undergoing investigations,” Cropper said. He said that he and UI planned to return to the commission over the coming months with further details and proposals on next stages of remediation.

But What About The Public

“Have you had any sort of public information campaign?” Mattison asked.

Crosbie said yes, UI held a public information session in June 2017.

“More recently,” he admitted, ​“we have not held a public forum.”

But, he pointed out, the company has been diligent about posting updates on the remediation process to the English Station website.

Mattison said that, prior to Wednesday’s meeting, he spent hours clicking through the website to get a sense of what information is available and how legible that information is to non-engineers.

“I have no idea what that website tells us,” he said. UI has to do a better job of explaining to lay people what they it has found at the old power plant site since it obtained access to the property in August 2016.

Westville Alder and City Plan Commissioner Adam Marchand agreed. ​“Simply posting technical information on a website is not all that one can do to make sure people understand what is happening,” he said.

Acting City Plan Director Michael Piscitelli pointed out that UI’s plans for and understanding of the site have changed dramatically since it last held a public information session in 2017.

It found bags filled with asbestos on the site, for example. It also discovered bricks falling from the Station B building, which it now plans to demolish.

Ultimately, Mattison said that he would not be comfortable voting in favor of the coastal site plan, soil erosion, and sediment control applications if UI didn’t provide more details on how it will undertake its remediation efforts without adversely impacting the public.

He also stressed that neighbors and members of the public deserve some kind of in-person update from the company considering the size, scope, and public interest of the clean up project.

“This is a cooperative effort,” he said. ​“This is not an attempt to undercut you in any way.”

In the end, Crosbie and Stopper agreed to put together a public meeting before the commission’s next meeting on March 20, which is when the commissioners plan to vote on the utility company’s clean up proposals.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misidentified Carl Stopper as David Tropper, who is the owner of the former power plant property. Tropper was not at Wednesday night’s meeting.