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EPA Oversees Sampling at Centredale Manor Property in N. Providence R.I.

Release Date: 10/28/2013
Contact Information: Emily Zimmerman, (617) 918-1037

(Boston, Mass. - Oct. 28, 2013) - EPA will oversee a sampling effort at the Centredale Manor Property in North Providence, R.I. Contractors will be digging under some of the parking lot and through the cap to sample material under the cap in order to determine what and how much material may need to be excavated as part of the remedy. This is pre-design phase work that was outlined in the ROD, and will help better define the cost of the remedy. If we find material that will need to be excavated, then that material would likely be sent to an incinerator off-site as part of the future cleanup work. A number of companies agreed to perform this work as a result of a mediation session with EPA.

EPA will hold a public meeting on October 30, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. at Centredale Manor to update residents and interested parties about the work being done and the parking plan, and to answer residents’ questions.

EPA expects work will begin in early-mid November, and will last for approximately 1 month. There is a chance that weather could alter the schedule for this sampling. Heavy precipitation or high water levels in the river may mean that we have to hold off doing this work until next year. We won’t know the conditions until we get closer to the first of November.

The work area of the sampling effort will be fenced off, and the parking lot nearby will be closed for parking while work is going on. Centredale Manor residents and visitors will alternately park in the first parking lot on the side of the building. There will be air monitors set up around the perimeter of the work area. If the air monitors detect dust leaving the work area, then work will be halted and dust suppression techniques will be used before operations continue. This is to ensure no contamination leaves the work area.

The Centredale Manor Restoration Project is located in and along a 1.5-mile stretch of the Woonasquatucket River in North Providence and Johnston, Rhode Island. This area is contaminated with dioxin and other contaminants from chemical production and drum reconditioning companies that occupied the Source Area from the 1940s to the early 1970s. EPA is about to complete its work with RI DEM on interim actions for properties in North Providence within the 100-year floodplain of certain sections of the Woonasquatucket River. In September 2012, EPA selected its cleanup plan for addressing the contaminated sediment, soil, surface water and groundwater at the Centredale Manor Restoration Project Superfund Site.

More information on Centredale Manor Restoration Project cleanup (https://www.epa.gov/region1/superfund/sites/centredale)