Chatham Courier > News
Former Bouchard Junkyard gets clean bill of health
Except for 20-foot strip along Route 20
By Sesame Campbell
NEW LEBANON — It’s been more than 10 years since the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) first investigated the area of the former Bouchard Junkyard and almost a year since the $8 million cleanup project got under way at the 17-acre U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site. Except for a tiny sliver of highway along Route 20, representatives from the DEC and New York state Department of Health (DOH) have determined that the site is suited for unrestricted use.
The project had three phases: the excavation of the contaminated soil, the removal of the contaminated soil and then backfill the site. Bids for the cleanup contract were opened on Feb. 27, 2008 and awarded to D.A. Collins Environmental Services. Site work began in June 2008 and was completed in December.
“We transported the contaminated soil to a secure disposal facility and then we backfilled the site with clean, backfill material,” said Mike Mason, project manager for the former Bouchard Junkyard site. “We then top soiled it.”
The cleanup required the excavation and off-site disposal of 59,000 tons of non-hazardous PCB-contaminated soil and 16,000 tons of hazardous PCB-contaminated soil. The water generated from excavation was collected and treated prior to discharge.
Officials said that the construction work was performed under careful full-time oversight by Dvirka and Bartilucci Consulting Engineers, the engineering consultant hired by the DEC. In addition, the contractor’s health and safety plan for the work was reviewed to ensure that on-site workers and nearby community members were protected during the construction activities.
Mason added that the reason behind why the short section of road along Route 20 will not be given a clean bill of environmental health is because project employees were not able to dig up and sample that section of the property. “We couldn’t dig into Route 20 because the New York state Department of Transportation (DOT) wouldn’t allow it,” he said.
Tom Allocco, a spokesperson for the DOH, said that from a health perspective, the property is suited for unrestricted use. “We’re the health department,” he said. “If there is a zoning restriction or something else we have no jurisdiction over that.”
DEC officials said that the site near the intersection of Routes 20 and 22 was a former auto junkyard that was closed in 1971 for operating without a license. The junkyard was operated from before 1959 through 1969 by Henri Bouchard. Bouchard’s widow sold the property to Edward Weisberg, who continued to use it as a junkyard until it was closed. The salvage was removed from the site in the late 1970s. Ralph Chittenden now owns the property.
“It was a junkyard the whole time I was growing up with lots of cars,” recalled Colleen Teal, town clerk. “It was more than just cars, there was a lot junk, with old buses and barrels of stuff.”
Sometime during Teal’s childhood the junkyard stopped operating. “It was just there, “she said. “I don’t remember anyone still doing anything there.”
During the 1990s, it came to the attention of officials at the DEC that PCB drums were being burned at the site. PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyl, belong to a broad family of man-made organic chemicals known as chlorinated hydrocarbons. PCBs were domestically manufactured for commercial and electrical products until they were banned in the late 1970s. According to the EPA, they have been demonstrated to cause cancer, as well as a variety of other adverse health effects on the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems.
According to a July 28, 2008 article in the Register-Star, since the start of the investigation of the site, more than 1,000 samples of soil, sediment and groundwater had been taken by DEC officials, where it was learned that levels of PCBs and toxins exceeded acceptable levels in the soil sediment. It was also determined that several metals were at low concentrations in the water.
“One of the things that was dumped there was barrels of GE (General Electric) waste that included PCBs,” Teal said. “The barrels rotted out over time. It is still a superfund site and will always be one, as they are only cleaning the top 18 inches.”
Although Teal said that it was her understanding that the property will remain a classified property as a superfund site and that uses on the property will need to be approved by the health department of the DEC, officials from those organizations indicated that the site would be available for unrestricted use, with the exception of the almost 20-foot strip of land along Route 20. During the last few years, several uses were inquired but denied because the project had not yet been completed.
“The problem with the former site was that contaminated PCB oil was used to coat the roads for dust control,” Mason said. “We were alerted to the problem by General Electric in the late 1990s.”
In fact, a memorandum from GE provided to the DEC in July 1998 suggested that drums of oil and PCBs had either been disposed of or burned at the site. Since the removal of the junk cars, a theater group, automobile repair shop and engineering company have been tenants in the three buildings on site. Prior to GE’s notification, much of the property had not been occupied by buildings and was utilized as farmland.
As for references made to the possibility of the site being used for the future Town Hall, council member Bruce Baldwin said that Town Board members looked at the site earlier and made the determination that it would not be suitable.
“We aren’t recommending it at all,” Baldwin said. “We don’t know what the final results are yet or what the property can be used for. All of that is premature right now. We can’t do anything other than wait for issue of the final report.”
The project had three phases: the excavation of the contaminated soil, the removal of the contaminated soil and then backfill the site. Bids for the cleanup contract were opened on Feb. 27, 2008 and awarded to D.A. Collins Environmental Services. Site work began in June 2008 and was completed in December.
“We transported the contaminated soil to a secure disposal facility and then we backfilled the site with clean, backfill material,” said Mike Mason, project manager for the former Bouchard Junkyard site. “We then top soiled it.”
The cleanup required the excavation and off-site disposal of 59,000 tons of non-hazardous PCB-contaminated soil and 16,000 tons of hazardous PCB-contaminated soil. The water generated from excavation was collected and treated prior to discharge.
Officials said that the construction work was performed under careful full-time oversight by Dvirka and Bartilucci Consulting Engineers, the engineering consultant hired by the DEC. In addition, the contractor’s health and safety plan for the work was reviewed to ensure that on-site workers and nearby community members were protected during the construction activities.
Mason added that the reason behind why the short section of road along Route 20 will not be given a clean bill of environmental health is because project employees were not able to dig up and sample that section of the property. “We couldn’t dig into Route 20 because the New York state Department of Transportation (DOT) wouldn’t allow it,” he said.
Tom Allocco, a spokesperson for the DOH, said that from a health perspective, the property is suited for unrestricted use. “We’re the health department,” he said. “If there is a zoning restriction or something else we have no jurisdiction over that.”
DEC officials said that the site near the intersection of Routes 20 and 22 was a former auto junkyard that was closed in 1971 for operating without a license. The junkyard was operated from before 1959 through 1969 by Henri Bouchard. Bouchard’s widow sold the property to Edward Weisberg, who continued to use it as a junkyard until it was closed. The salvage was removed from the site in the late 1970s. Ralph Chittenden now owns the property.
“It was a junkyard the whole time I was growing up with lots of cars,” recalled Colleen Teal, town clerk. “It was more than just cars, there was a lot junk, with old buses and barrels of stuff.”
Sometime during Teal’s childhood the junkyard stopped operating. “It was just there, “she said. “I don’t remember anyone still doing anything there.”
During the 1990s, it came to the attention of officials at the DEC that PCB drums were being burned at the site. PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyl, belong to a broad family of man-made organic chemicals known as chlorinated hydrocarbons. PCBs were domestically manufactured for commercial and electrical products until they were banned in the late 1970s. According to the EPA, they have been demonstrated to cause cancer, as well as a variety of other adverse health effects on the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems.
According to a July 28, 2008 article in the Register-Star, since the start of the investigation of the site, more than 1,000 samples of soil, sediment and groundwater had been taken by DEC officials, where it was learned that levels of PCBs and toxins exceeded acceptable levels in the soil sediment. It was also determined that several metals were at low concentrations in the water.
“One of the things that was dumped there was barrels of GE (General Electric) waste that included PCBs,” Teal said. “The barrels rotted out over time. It is still a superfund site and will always be one, as they are only cleaning the top 18 inches.”
Although Teal said that it was her understanding that the property will remain a classified property as a superfund site and that uses on the property will need to be approved by the health department of the DEC, officials from those organizations indicated that the site would be available for unrestricted use, with the exception of the almost 20-foot strip of land along Route 20. During the last few years, several uses were inquired but denied because the project had not yet been completed.
“The problem with the former site was that contaminated PCB oil was used to coat the roads for dust control,” Mason said. “We were alerted to the problem by General Electric in the late 1990s.”
In fact, a memorandum from GE provided to the DEC in July 1998 suggested that drums of oil and PCBs had either been disposed of or burned at the site. Since the removal of the junk cars, a theater group, automobile repair shop and engineering company have been tenants in the three buildings on site. Prior to GE’s notification, much of the property had not been occupied by buildings and was utilized as farmland.
As for references made to the possibility of the site being used for the future Town Hall, council member Bruce Baldwin said that Town Board members looked at the site earlier and made the determination that it would not be suitable.
“We aren’t recommending it at all,” Baldwin said. “We don’t know what the final results are yet or what the property can be used for. All of that is premature right now. We can’t do anything other than wait for issue of the final report.”
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