Settlement Agreement Reimburses Taxpayers for Cost of Removing Hazards at Springfield, Vt. Facility
(SPRINGFIELD, VT) – The former owner of an abandoned tool manufacturing facility in Springfield, Vt. has agreed to pay $662,500 plus interest to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reimburse the costs of removing hazardous contamination from the site.
Textron Inc., of Providence, R.I., recently agreed to pay the funds associated with cleaning the 17-acre site at 160 Clinton St., near the center of the town. The parcel is mostly covered by a single-story, 270,000-square-foot brick manufacturing building.
This facility was used commercially from 1907 to 1985 to manufacture machine tools. Jones & Lamson Machine Co. owned the property and made machine tools from 1907 to 1964. Textron Inc. owned and operated the facility from 1964 to 1985. In 1985, the site was abandoned and fell into disrepair over the following years. The abandoned property was transferred several times before the Springfield Regional Development Corporation, the current owner, acquired the property in 2002.
In 2016, at the request of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, EPA performed a site investigation to identify the nature and extent of contamination at the former facility. The agency sampled surface soil at 24 locations, one which showed waste chips containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at concentrations above the threshold of the federal Toxic Substances Control Act. The samples showed elevated levels of several hazardous substances in addition to PCBs, including chromium and arsenic.
Based on these findings, EPA performed a Removal Action at the site in August and September 2017 to contain and remove materials that could harm human health. EPA removed drums of hazardous substances found in the boiler room and excavated and removed 990 tons of black oily soil and contaminated swarf, or waste chips, from along the bank of the Black River. All of the contaminated materials were disposed of off-site at facilities appropriately licensed to safely handle or store hazardous materials.
More information:
EPA's Emergency Response and Removal Program: https://www.epa.gov/emergency-response