Thomas Breen photo
The English Station’s “Station A” behind the now-dismantled former “Station B” site.
United Illuminating will be removing 3,500 cubic yards of contaminated soil from the all-but-demolished “Station B” site on Grand Avenue as part of the next stage of its English Station clean-up.
The regional power company announced those soil remediation plans Wednesday night during the regular monthly City Plan Commission meeting at the municipal office building at 200 Orange St.
Commissioners granted UI unanimous approval to amend the site plan for remediation and grading activities that the company had received an initial sign off on last March.
The newly amended plan will see UI lower by three feet the center top elevation of the grass barrier atop 510 Grand Ave., on Ball Island in the Mill River. That site used to hold the “Station B” power plant building, which UI dismantled last year.
According to the City Plan department’s favorable staff report about the proposed amendment, the changes “will result in approximately 3,500 cubic yards of soil being removed from the site and disposed of offsite at a permitted soil facility.” That PCB-contaminated soil would otherwise have been buried beneath the existing soil barrier.
The final grade of the ultimately remediated site will be 2 percent, rather than the previously approved grade of 4 percent.
“At the end of the day, it will likely make the site more developable,” UI Project Manager Shawn Crosbie said.
Crosbie and TRC Project Manager Carl Stopper explained that they were back before the commissioners Wednesday night because of conditions recently imposed upon the company by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP).
In the months since the City Plan Commission’s first approval, DEEP granted UI requested the lower grade for the remediated site as part of its conditional approval for UI’s soil remediation alternatives analysis.
Wednesday night’s City Plan Commission meeting.
The City Plan Commission’s March 2019 approval granted UI the right to perform the following remedial activities at the “Station B” site: excavation and off-site disposal of PCB-impacted soil and surplus non-PCB-impacted soil, sediment, and porous materials; the collection of soil samples for further PCB and non-PCV impacted soil analysis; dewatering and removal of sediment from the cooling water tunnel; preparation of sub-grade and on-site relocation of soils in areas of capping; construction of soil and asphalt caps to render soils inaccessible; the restoration of soil excavation areas and the cooling tunnel with suitable backfill soil.
“UI is currently wrapping up demolition of the former Station B off Grand Avenue,” UI spokesperson Ed Crowder told the Independent Thursday in an email statement.
“The structure itself was actually dismantled late last year, and we expect soon to start soil remediation on the 3.6‑acre parcel on which it used to sit.”
He said the amended remediation plan “does not significantly affect the timeline of the overall remediation project.”
“The completion date remains uncertain,” he continued, “pending an agreement with DEEP on the right path forward for remediation of the remaining parcel and structures on the site.”
What and Where is the permitted soil facility? And what is done with the contaminated soil from that property? Is it a matter of Not in my backyard? Why isn't that location made public?