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EPA Removes Connecticut Site from Superfund List

Release Date: 11/07/2005
Contact Information:

Contact: David Deegan (deegan.dave@epa.gov), EPA Office of Public Affairs, (617) 918-1017

For Immediate Release: November 7, 2005; Release # dd051106

Because all appropriate cleanup actions have been completed and the site no longer poses a threat to human health or the environment, EPA has removed the Wolcott, Conn. Nutmeg Valley Road Site from the National Priorities List, also known as Superfund. Sites deleted from the National Priorities List remain eligible for remedial actions in the unlikely event that conditions at the site change and warrant such action in the future.

"EPA and the Town of Wolcott worked diligently to reach the milestone we are celebrating today," said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England Office. "We are pleased to be able to move this site off the Superfund list so that local business owners can more easily refinance or improve their properties and local officials can now focus attention on redevelopment in the area.”

The Nutmeg Valley Site consists of a dozen small manufacturing facilities, light industrial facilities and repair shops over a 28-acre area in the southern section of Wolcott, along the border with Waterbury. Private wells contaminated with volatile organic compounds were first discovered by state and local health officials in 1979. In 1986, the Town of Wolcott extended a public water supply line into the area.

EPA placed the site on the National Priorities List in March 1989. Early investigations focused on two machine shops on Nutmeg Valley Road with a known history of dumping waste oil and solvents onto the ground. The study area was expanded to 155 acres to include similar companies on Swiss Lane, Tosun Road, Wolcott Road and Town Line Road which were also seen as potential sources of groundwater contamination.

In 1992, EPA removed 1,150 tons of sludge waste and contaminated soil from two unlined lagoons. This action addressed the threats posed by the electroplating wastes in surface soils, and removed a potential source of groundwater contamination.

Based on further studies completed by EPA and the U.S. Geological Survey from 1995 through 2002, EPA concluded that although some contaminants were detected in groundwater, there was no evidence of a wide-spread plume of contamination and levels of contaminants in much of the study area were decreasing over time through natural degradation processes. As a result, the study area was reduced in size to its current 28 acres. EPA has determined that existing state law and a local ordinance adopted in 2004 prohibiting the use of ground water in the remaining area of groundwater contamination, when considered together, will ensure that human exposure is prevented.

EPA published a notice of intent to delete the Nutmeg Valley site in the Federal Register on Aug. 5, and sought public comment between Aug. 5 - Sept. 9. No public comments opposed the delisting, and EPA completed the process on Sept. 23, 2005.

Because EPA’s determination of no further action relies in part upon existing laws already in place, EPA will review the protectiveness of this determination every five years. This review will be limited in scope to evaluating whether or not these legal mechanisms (or similar requirements) currently in place remain in place, and whether or not these mechanisms function sufficiently to prevent human exposure to contaminated groundwater. Should this review indicate that exposure is occurring, then EPA may take additional action to determine if such exposure presents an unacceptable risk.

For more information, please visit the Wolcott, Conn. Nutmeg Valley Road Site fact sheet.

Related Information:
Nutmeg Valley Road Site
Superfund in New England