Waterfront Salt Piles Debated

While the president of the Massachusetts-based logistics company Enstructure spoke of his firm’s careful management of the huge salt piles along the shore of the Mill River at Chapel and East Streets, longtime environmental advocates described a different scene — one where permeable tarps ripped and flapped in the wind during storms, and where the salt ran into the river and sank into the soil.

That was the scene Tuesday evening in a Zoom call for an informational public hearing by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) regarding its intent to reissue its permit to Gateway Terminal, owned and run by Enstructure, for the ​“discharge of stormwater associated with industrial activities.” The activity in question: holding tens of thousands of tons of salt to de-ice roads in Connecticut and beyond in the winter.

The salt doesn’t need to be stored there, argued Laura Cahn, chair of New Haven’s Environmental Advisory Council (EAC), during the public comment section of Tuesday’s meeting. De-icing material ​“does not need to be near water,” she said. ​“We want the waterfront for use for wonderful things, not industrial use.”

The salt piles at the corner of Chapel and East Streets have been where they are for decades, and sit atop some of New Haven’s most complex industrial history. Much of the salt occupies the site of the former Southern Connecticut Gas Company (SCG) gasification plant, which manufactured gas from coal and oil for a century until the mid-1960s and the advent of natural gas lines to New Haven. By 1994 most of the plant buildings had been demolished, and in 1998, SCG started leasing the empty yard for bulk storage. SCG is now part of Iberdrola-Avangrid, which means the land itself is tied up with the same stymied remediation efforts that bedevil the nearby English Station, even as pollutants from the soil keep ending up in the water.

Gateway Terminal — now run by Enstructure — took up the lease on the land and began storing salt for de-icing there. For many years the salt was kept in three spots around the state. In 2015, it received an enormous shipment of over 30,000 tons of salt, prompting a change in requirements from DEEP. In most cases, de-icing salt is stored in a large, enclosed structure; they can look like large sheds, or sometimes are almost dome-like with pointed tops. In this case, however, the enormous amount of salt triggered an exception: under DEEP regulations, places storing more than 30,000 tons of salt don’t have to build a structure to enclose it, provided they otherwise adhere to pollution standards. Since then, Gateway Terminal has been receiving salt from as far away as Egypt, Chile, and Brazil. From there, trucks from municipalities from all over the state and beyond — though not New Haven — pick it up to de-ice their roads. 

It has also been the source of neighbors complaining about pollution from salt. How much pollution is difficult to assess, according to Jessica Roberts, an attorney at Save the Sound, which petitioned DEEP for Tuesday’s hearing. This is ​“in part because the salt levels in the Mill River fluctuate so much naturally” with the tides, and ​“in part because sampling occurs upgradient of the salt piles (and not necessarily where the salt may run off/leach into the Mill River). We also don’t have any long-term monitoring data for the river.”

“Despite these data gaps, it’s still our position that, given the risks here, more precautionary measures must be taken to ensure that salt piles are not contaminating the Mill River or other water bodies throughout the state,” Roberts stated.

Meeting Standards ...

Caleb Hamel, a staff attorney at DEEP, reminded attendees that the public hearing was not ​“adjudicatory,” but rather ​“for the public to hear” about the issue and for DEEP to ​“receive public commentary.” In addition to the hearing, the public is welcome to submit comments until May 20. After the comment period closes, DEEP will issue a hearing officer’s report; after that, as a later DEEP statement at the meeting put it, ​“a determination will be made” regarding the permit.

The meeting, which drew about 50 attendees, began with a presentation from Karen Abbott, an environmental analyst at DEEP, who walked attendees through the structure of DEEP’s general permits for controlling stormwater runoff. DEEP’s stormwater regulations stem from the federal Clean Water Act, passed in 1972, which shaped Connecticut’s state-level regulations.

Generally speaking, DEEP’s stormwater program issues permits to protect the state’s waterways from pollution due to stormwater runoff, when water collects pollutants and carries them into streams, rivers, lakes, and the ocean. These pollutants run the gamut from nutrients that cause algal blooms to bacteria to salts and heavy metals — the last two of which were of particular concern for the Enstructure salt piles. DEEP has active stormwater permits with 1,661 facilities in the state, five of which are dedicated to housing bulk de-icing salt.

The requirements under the permit are structured around a stormwater pollution prevention plan (SWPPP) to make sure the permittee is complying with the Clean Water Act. It involves ​“routine daily, weekly, or monthly inspections,” a deeper inspection every quarter, and an assessment twice a year. The inspections and assessments are intended to make sure the facility is practicing everything from ​“good housekeeping” — meaning keeping the place tidy — to keeping up with maintenance and deploying ​“best engineering practices.” It also requires sampling stormwater discharge. DEEP is also adding new requirements: first, that permittees submit an annual report, and second, that facilities must correct problems that sampling finds. Once those corrective measures are made, they must sample again, and if the problem persists, the cycle starts over until the facility meets federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) pollution standards.

Abbott also stressed that DEEP doesn’t require a permanent structure to enclose the salt if the facility can meet Clean Water Act standards through good housekeeping, storing the salt on an impermeable surface (that is, pristine pavement), using impermeable tarps, keeping the salt covered as often as possible, and otherwise preventing runoff.

Greg Baribault, president of Enstructure, which runs the facility, described how the company was meeting EPA standards. Enstructure has three facilities in the state, in New Haven, New London, and Montville, but New Haven stood out as the only one with access to shipping, barge, and rail and highway systems. The company is ​“committed to the health and safety of all employees, contractors, customers, and communities, while minimizing our carbon footprint,” Baribault said. 

Baribault touted the federal clean ports grant Enstructure had received last fall, saying that it would have three electric cranes operating in the harbor along with 10 electric trucks, all replacing diesel-powered equipment. Another grant, from Green Marine, an environmental certification program, is intended to help the company ​“go beyond regulatory obligations” in protecting biodiversity, keeping the air, water, and soil clean, and having good community relations. Enstructure, Baribault said, conducted ​“daily walkarounds” of the salt facility, as well as quarterly, semi-annual, and annual monitoring. It is, in short, following the SWPPP that DEEP laid out for it under its permit.

“Why is the salt here?” Baribault asked. For ​“public safety.” The salt piles in New Haven are ​“key to supporting de-icing activities throughout the winter” across the state and into New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. Its contractors include the departments of transportation of numerous towns. The Chapel Street lot is the ​“best centralized location” for the salt, and there is no other nearby space big enough to hold all the salt needed to de-ice the roads. It is in a place zoned for industrial use, and doesn’t touch any aquifers. Where else could the salt go?

... Or Not?

Where DEEP laid out its requirements and standards and Baribault painted a picture of a company meeting them while providing a necessary service, Jessica Roberts, a Save the Sound attorney, offered cause for concern. ​“Working to reduce stormwater pollution,” Roberts said, is one of Save the Sound’s priorities. She urged the state to strengthen its provisions regarding the management of salt piles — specifically by requiring Enstructure to build a permanent shelter for its salt at Chapel and East. 

“Almost all” of the rivers in the state, Roberts said, are impaired by runoff, and ​“it’s known that excess salt can be toxic and lethal to aquatic life” and ​“can contaminate drinking water.” A salt pile can lose 5 percent of its volume if left uncovered for long, which in the Enstructure case could mean over 1,500 tons. ​“EPA recommends salt piles be covered by a permanent structure,” she said.

She knows DEEP waives this requirement for larger facilities. ​“If the facilities were able to consistently cover the piles,” she said, ​“this wouldn’t be an issue for us.” But the trucks coming and going from Chapel and East mean the piles are left uncovered for a ​“significant period of time.”

“Using a tarp is just not sufficient,” she said. She cited a violation Gateway Terminal received from DEEP in 2021 for ​“failure to enclose or cover solid deicing material piles” and ​“failure to maintain good housekeeping practices.” In response, Gateway had written that ​“the existing de-icing materials piles observed at the facility at the time of the DEEP inspection were temporarily uncovered at that time as the facility was in the process of receiving two additional large shipments of approximately 100,000 tons of de-icing materials.” The complexity of unloading, it said, meant that it would keep the salt exposed for a month and a half, from Oct. 31 to Dec. 15.

Roberts produced a series of photographs, obtained from DEEP through a Freedom of Information Act request, showing the uncovered salt at the time of the 2021 violation, as well as images of the salt in standing water, the salt spilling out of its enclosure, and clear water runoff.

“This is especially concerning to us considering the location of the salt piles,” she said, right next to the Mill River and in the middle of a flood hazard area.

“We are asking DEEP to amend the stormwater general permit” to require building a permanent structure — not just at Chapel and East, but across all of Connecticut — and in addition, requiring an individual permit, as a general permit probably couldn’t cover the unique complexities of the Enstructure facility.

Paperwork that DEEP provided to the Independent showed that the 2021 violation was spurred by a complaint from a neighbor about uncovered salt piles. At the time, in addition to the failures mentioned above, the DEEP inspection team of Abbott and fellow DEEP co-worker Laura Gaughran found ​“three potential stormwater discharge points,” one of which was active during the inspection. ​“We said unless these discharges are eliminated, these locations will be subject to sampling,” Abbott wrote at the time. 

In 2022 Abbott and Gaughran inspected the site again, responding to another ​“resident’s complaint related to uncovered salt piles.” While there, the DEEP staff ​“confirmed that the berm around the Mill River water line had been fixed and that there was not a point source discharge from the drainage area where the salt piles are located,” and that ​“all the salt piles were covered at the time of inspection.” Monitoring of samples from the facility’s catch basin in 2024 shows that the facility is fluctuating around the benchmarks DEEP has set for a variety of pollutants, requiring continued monitoring but not triggering more violations.

After Roberts spoke, the meeting then opened to public comment. New Haven environmental advocate Chris Ozyck spoke first, through his cell phone.

“I’m out here at the Gateway site,” he said, over the Zoom call, and ​“you’re going to see a number of things I have questions about.” He showed and described a salt pile that hadn’t been covered since the winter, evidence of runoff from the piles, and vehicles stored on site (which was against regulations). ​“You’ll notice in the distance there’s a tarp that has failed,” he said, a ​“failure of inspection.” He questioned the quality of the tarps Gateway was using. ​“You can see through the tarp,” he said. ​“They’ve been covering them with permeable tarps.”

He also called attention to the requirement that the salt be stored on an impermeable surface. ​“You’ll notice all the paving here has cracks,” he said, suggesting that the salt could permeate the soil and run into the Mill River. Angling his phone to point at the water, he pointed out that ​“right now, as I speak, there is oil in the river.” What was the source of it? ​“All outside this concrete wall is all gravel” and ​“you can see the water flowing directly into the river,” he said. ​“When they do the testing, are they doing it during a storm event?” He alluded to the land’s previous use as the site of a gasification plant, and the chemicals that were likely in the soil as a result. ​“I believe the salt piles, the weight of them, is contributing” to those chemicals being squeezed out and released into the water.

Save the Sound staff offered comments. Nicole Davis, watersheds project manager with Save the Sound, mentioned that the piles were not only ​“located adjacent to an impaired water body,” but also in ​“close proximity to an elementary school” — John S. Martinez School, on the other side of the Mill River — ​“and a residential neighborhood.” As Enstructure expanded operations to the east side of the river, ​“both piles have inadequate stormwater management” and are ​“chronically left uncovered.” She reported that ​“neighbors have people leaf-blowing spills” of salt into the street, where they’re washed into stormwater. Lys Gant, watershed stewardship coordinator at Save the Sound, noted that runoff with high qualities of salt can alter soil structure and heavy metals in the soil, damage vegetation and buildings, deplete biodiversity, and exacerbate asthma.

“We know that we can do better and should do better,” Davis said.

Anstress Farwell, president of the New Haven Urban Design League and longtime resident, had observed salt blowing onto Chapel Street from the piles. But she was focused on the site’s connection to the stalled remediation of English Station. ​“For the whole time the salt pile has been there,” she said on Tuesday, there have been complaints about it, and people wondering who to hold accountable, even as DEEP issued a permit in 2015 to expand the pile.

“It’s important this site gets remediated,” she said, and ​“the salt piles are an impediment to the first-priority work” of remediation, especially in an environmental justice community. ​“I fully support” an individual permit, she said, because it wasn’t certain the general permit had the language to deal with ​“the combination of impacts that happen in EJ communities.”

More broadly, she advocated for moving the salt out of New Haven altogether. The site ​“is in an industrial zone but it is not in a port district” — and the city has begun encouraging more mixed-use development in the area. The current direction in New Haven is not ​“to expand industrial use,” she said. ​“We really should be looking at when we can end this use” and ​“do something equitable and fair” by distributing the salt throughout the state at smaller sites — closer to the municipalities that use it.

“I ride my bike past the piles literally every day,” environmental advocate Aaron Goode said. ​“It’s cute that Gateway has ESG [environmental, social, and governance] goals,” but to Goode this is contradicted by photographic evidence he had gathered in ​“the past 11 years,” whether it was ​“waves of salt” on the street and vehicles ​“swerving around it” or trucks idling for hours waiting to get their shipments.

“In practice,” Goode continued, ​“the tarps are ripped” and ​“they have massive holes in them,” and ​“they’re blowing around” during storms; he said he personally saw a tarp covering a third of a pile during last week’s rainstorms. The salt was ​“one of the reasons it’s virtually impossible” for any plants to grow on Chapel Street, he said, including Japanese knotweed, an invasive species that can grow in ​“a nuclear blast site.” All this, he said, is concentrated in a ​“massively overburdened community.”

Regarding the previous talk about improving standards and going beyond expectations, Goode on Tuesday drew attention to the possibility that they could start by better enforcing current standards, to ​“help DEEP in stopping the damage to its credibility by allowing what is taking place on this site to continue.”

Cahn, New Haven’s EAC chair, had a few suggestions to remedy the situation. She said every delivery and distribution of salt should be videotaped and reported to DEEP. A DEEP inspector could be onsite all the time. The salt could be put on rail cars as soon as possible after delivery, rather than making a line of trucks idle for pickup. Cahn also made the case for not having the salt stored right alongside the water at all.

More generally, she said, the EAC ​“has had a number of complains about the salt piles over the years,” and ​“I hope we can solve these problems.”

DEEP is accepting public comments about the salt piles until May 20. To submit comments by email, contact Caleb Hamel, staff attorney, at [email protected].