DEEP To Remove Toxic Materials From English Station

The fish are dead — but they died of natural causes like blues attacking them and low oxygen due to the warm weather.

Not due to pollution leaching into the river from English Station.

And if you fish for bunker off the nearby bridges, there’s no advisory not to continue.

That’s the latest word from the U.S. Coast Guard and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) officials who have since Sept. 15 have been responding to what has been termed a ​“substantial” and now an ​“imminent threat” to the Mill River.

Although no leaks have yet been confirmed into the river from this incident, the ​“imminent threat” of leaching, a hazard since the station was closed down, has moved officials to action.

Matt Williams, DEEP’s emergency response unit supervisor on site on Wednesday, said a joint ​“command” of DEEP and the Coast Guard will remove toxic materials — those that are in barrels and other containers above the ground — from the site.

Click here and here for previous stories of the Coast Guard deployment of booms to guard against a possible leaching into the river of petroleum and other still-being-assessed nasty materials stored at English Station, the defunct power plant on the Grand Avenue at the gateway to Fair Haven.

“Visible oil coming out into a catch basin” back in mid-September prompted DEEP to call in the troops of the Coast Guard, said Williams.

Since the booms have been deployed, two oil sheens have appeared nearby in the river but have dissipated on their own. Williams and Coast Guard officials said those modest leaks were not traceable to petroleum materials in the plant getting into the water.

“New Haven is a harbor,” said Williams. Both sheens were of the ​“rainbow” variety, which indicates a small amount of oil, like from an outboard motor.

Nor are the dead bunker visible near and beneath the bridge by the plant attributable to pollution into the river.

“We believe they [the dead fish] are naturally occurring. They died due to lack of oxygen,” which happens in the unseasonably warm weather, and also from the attack of bluefish chasing them, Williams said.

Click here and here for previous stories about those runs, which feature schooling of large numbers of the fish, often beneath the bridges of the Mill River, and the dead fish left in their wake.

A cursory look at some of the fish lying on the gravelly beach near the bridge did show bloody gashes on their flanks, a common sign of the attack of the larger fish from below.

Officials called it a common sight. If there was a die-off due to pollution, the dead fish floating would be in the thousands, they said.

Asked if any of the fish have been examined for toxicity, Williams said that is a difficult task, including sending the fish out to labs and waiting for results.

“We have no reason to believe it’s a toxic event,” he added.

“Imminent Threat” Remains

The news Wednesday is that DEEP and the Coast Guard have made a decision to remove what Williams called an ongoing ​“imminent threat” to the river by removing the toxic materials from inside the English Station building.

Neither he nor Coast Guard officers on the site could say how much stuff, in what kinds of containers, and when the removal will take place, or estimate the cost. All that is still being determined.

The cost, at least for now, is being borne by federal dollars.

Williams was at pains to point out that DEEP is frequently called to English Station to respond to situations like what is ongoing. ​“The building is very unsecured. We’ve been repeatedly out here for years. The imminent, substantial threat is being removed,” which should be seen as good news, he averred.

Although he was still unable to name the specific materials to be removed, they are likely all petroleum-related, including some polluted with PCBs.

“We’re not here to remediate, but to remove an imminent threat. So if there’s a fire or if the building collapses, it’s not going to end up in the river,” he said.

The balance of the work could take anywhere from another week to another month, officials said. One of the issues making estimates difficult is where, when the bad stuff is removed, it can go, Williams said.

“They did a lot of damage to keep the lights on,” he added.