Thomas Breen photos
Environmental remediation contractors at 71 Shelton.
Blinky the three-eyed fish was nowhere to be found at the site of a former nuclear manufacturing facility in Newhallville.
The fenced-off demolition area was instead replete with dozens of tightly-sealed intermodal containers filled with uranium-impacted concrete, asbestos, and lead dust — as well as hardhat-wearing remediation contractors working to complete a $10 million federally funded clean-up.
On Tuesday afternoon, representatives from General Electric, the Middletown-based contractor Arcadis, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal Department of Energy, and the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) gave Newhallville neighbors an on-site update about the ongoing demolition and environmental remediation at the former nuclear site at 71 Shelton Ave.
The lone extant above-ground structure at 71 Shelton, slated to come down next week.
Since Oct. 31, General Electric, Arcadis, and the subcontractor Stamford Wrecking have been busily working at deconstructing the dilapidated building that used to house a United Nuclear Corporation factory at that location. The clean-up will prepare the land for an as-of-now undisclosed new development near Science Park and a planned new complex with almost 400 market-rate apartments at another former industrial site.
While the nuclear fuel manufacturing plant was decommissioned in 1970, the building has remained — as well as its hazardous asbestos, lead dust, and uranium-impacted concrete and steel.
The various contractors and government regulators gave Shepard Street block watch captain Addie Kimbrough (the sole member of the public to show up for the walk-through, in addition to this reporter) a, err, glowing report on the safe progress they’ve made at the site so far.
Since Oct. 31, the contractor deconstructed all of the above-ground structure except for the Shelton Avenue-facing facade — which should be coming down sometime next week, said GE Corporate Brownfields Program Manager James Van Nortwick.
GE’s Van Nortwick: “No question” taking down the former dilapidated building was the right call.
The contractors have also gathered, packed, and trucked out of the site 70 intermodal containers’ worth of uranium-impacted debris and an additional 45 containers’ worth of non-radioactive waste, most of which is contaminated with asbestos and lead.
Those steel containers have been driven down a route that includes Shelton Avenue, Dixwell Avenue, Munson Street, Prospect Street, Edwards Street, State Street, Ferry Street, and Middletown Avenue over to the Anastasio railyard. The radioactive waste has then been carried by train out to a disposal site in Utah, while the non-radioactive waste has been carried by train to a disposal site in Alabama.
“It’s moving forward and going safely,” DEEP Radiation Division Director Jeffrey Semancik said about the clean-up efforts so far.
When asked if taking down the building and clearing the site was the right call instead of letting the building remain standing untouched, Van Nortwick replied, “No doubt about it.”
That’s not just because of the trace remnants of radioactive contamination on the site, he said. Rather, the most pressing health hazard presented by the building was its wealth of asbestos and lead dust.
Arcadis construction manager Flynn: Clean-up should be finished by this summer.
“The biggest thing was the roof,” said Mike Flynn, Arcadis’s construction manager for the project. “Asbestos was literally falling down from the roof” before the remediation contractors even began their work last fall.
This was the group’s second public walk-through at 71 Shelton. In addition to presenting at multiple Newhallville community management team meetings about the project this winter, Arcadis has sent out regular email updates with air quality monitoring reports to neighborhood alders and community leaders. See the bottom of this story for the latest email update, which includes a wealth of details on the status of the clean-up.
Remediation contractors load a radioactive waste-bearing container onto a truck.
Walking alongside the northern edge of the demolition site, just outside of a chain-link fence, Flynn and Van Nortwick explained that the contractors have probably another 235 intermodal containers’ worth of radioactive and non-radioactive waste that they need to truck out of the site before the remediation is finished sometime late this summer.
Now that almost all of the above-ground structure has been taken down, Van Nortwick said, the next step in the demolition process involves taking apart concrete slab and the below-ground steam pipes and other trenches.
“So now they don’t have to wear masks?” asked Kimbrough (pictured) as she pointed to the on-site demolition workers.
That’s right, Van Nortwick said. At least, for most areas of the site they don’t have to wear masks, now that the building has been taken down and all but the underground asbestos hazards have been cleared.
Inside 71 Shelton.
When all of the waste has been disposed of and the remaining underground portions of the structure demolished, the contractors will replace six inches to a foot of soil with clean fill and state and federal regulators will conduct a final round of tests to make sure that the site is indeed clean.
After it passes the final inspection, the contractors will lay down gravel atop the clean fill and, if all goes well, the site will be all cleared for any type of development allowed by city zoning regulations.
DOE Project Officer Greg Chandler (pictured) explained that the federal government is footing the $10 million bill for this clean-up project because it was the one that held the contracts for the submarine nuclear fuel manufacturing that took place at this site over 50 years ago.
The DOE and the NRC originally signed off on the remediation of the site back in the 1990s, he said. Then, in 2011, it found that the remediation was not in fact complete. The federal government initially considered cleaning up the most hazardous areas of the site while maintaining the building, he said, but ultimately decided that the dilapidated structure had to come down.
NRC regulators Jim Trapp and Laurie Kauffman: Clean-up looks good so far.
The site itself is owned by Schneur Katz of Zsy Development LLC.
“It’s been a long project,” Chandler said. And come this summer, the project’s nuclear manufacturing past should finally be just that — in the past.
“I know there was a lot of concern leading up to this [demolition project], and rightfully so,” Newhallville/Prospect Hill Alder Steve Winter told the Independent by phone. “We were told this site was clean, and that it turned out it needed further remediation.”
“The good news is this has multiple levels of oversight,” he said. He praised GE and the state and federal regulators for coming to the community management teams, for providing regular email updates and site visits, and for being as transparent as possible as this demolition work has gone forward.
He said he has not heard any complaints from neighbors about either the demolition work itself or the trucking out of hazardous waste.
Management Team Updated
Laura Glesby Photo
Hours later, Van Nortwick (pictured) stopped by the Lincoln Bassett Community School cafeteria to update the Newhallville Community Management Team about the project. “It’s a very slow, methodical deconstruction,” he assured the group.
Addie Kimbrough showed up too to report on her experience at the walk-through. “I was concerned before and now I’m feeling a bit better about it,” she said.
Management Team Chair Kim Harris stressed that she wanted to meet the property’s owner. Van Nortwick responded that the owner will be available at future tours.
Harris also suggested that data should be collected about the health of residents nearby the project, including “how many people have developed cancer in that area.”
Carlah Esdaile Bragg, who works on community relations at the Cornell Scott-Hill Health Center, recalled an effort over the last two decades to remediate contaminated properties in Newhall, a Hamden neighborhood adjacent to Newhallville, including a local middle school.Bragg said that residents of Newhall had been surveyed about their health.
Email Update On 71 Shelton Clean-Up
Following is an email update provided by Arcadis Senior Environmental Engineer Rocco Giampaolo on Monday. Click here to download the PDF attachment to that email.
Intermodal containers filled with radioactive waste waiting to be trucked out of the 71 Shelton site.
Dear Newhallville Ward Alders and Community Management Team Officers:
At the October community meeting, United Nuclear Corporation/General Electric Company (UNC/GE) committed to providing project updates and monitoring results on a routine basis. As you know, UNC/GE is performing the work at the site, in close consultation with the US Department of Energy (DOE) and with oversight from the CT Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (CTDEEP) and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
This email represents our fourth communication, covering work from December 21, 2019 through January 24, 2020. We have organized this summary into three parts — - Site Activities, Air Monitoring Results, and Waste Shipments.
Site Activities
Project abatement and deconstruction activities are ongoing and have generally advanced as anticipated. Abatement of asbestos-containing materials (roof and windows) was completed during this update period and the abatement of newly identified ACM (pipe insulation in trenches and tunnels) is currently being conducted; the building deconstruction activities that started at the east end of Building 3H and continued through to Building 6H. As of January 24, 2020, Stamford Wrecking has removed nearly the entire above grade building structure, with only a limited structure remaining along the western and northwestern sides of Building 6H. Waste generated from the deconstruction has been containerized and transported to the Anastasio railyard.
In late December, UNC initiated removal of the concrete floor slab from the eastern portion of the building (Building 3H) between Column Lines 33 and 48 to uncover underlying soils and a portion of the southern trench. Using a hoe-ram to break up the concrete floor slab, several equipment foundations and various trenches containing steam and process piping systems have been uncovered. These features are being mapped and will be scanned with radiological meter and sampled for proper disposal. Sampling will include the underlying soil and concrete features, and any materials that are suspected to contain asbestos.
Stamford Wrecking recently initiated pipe removal activities in the southern utility trench. The piping was cut into manageable pieces while in the trench, removed from the trench and placed on the adjacent concrete slab, scanned for radiological impacts using a probe/meter, and further sized in preparation for loading into intermodal containers for offsite transport. Pipe scanning results are generally at background with an occurrence of a slightly elevated reading at one location (twice background). A material sample was collected at this location and was sent to a certified laboratory for analysis to determine if the uranium source is from the building (enriched) or naturally occurring, results are pending.
Air Monitoring Results
The number of ambient air monitoring locations remains at six. As previously noted, air monitoring is performed for airborne asbestos fibers, particulates, and radioactivity (net alpha particles associated with uranium). The locations of the particulate and radioactivity air monitoring stations are shown in Figure 1. Each of the six active Air Monitoring Stations contains one dust monitor and one radiation air sampler. Asbestos fiber sampling locations are positioned near the active work area as well as the decontamination station. At a minimum, readings above action levels require that ongoing project activities and site conditions are reviewed to assess the possible causes for the elevated results and additional measures that can be taken to reduce the airborne levels. Depending on the actual result, there are additional requirements to promptly notify the CTDEEP and/or stop all on-site work activities.
The site monitoring for airborne dust (PM10) and asbestos fibers for the period from December 21, 2019 through January 24, 2020 indicate that there are no readings above the respective action levels.
The site monitoring summary for radioactivity (net alpha) for this period is attached in the Radioactivity Air Sampling Summary. From December 21, 2019 through January 17, 2020 there were no monitoring results that were above the action level.
Waste Shipments
As of January 24, 2020, a total of 166 intermodal containers have been brought to the site. Of the 166, a total of 113 loaded containers have been transported to the Anastasio railyard. A total of 53 containers have been loaded and are awaiting transport to the railyard. Structural steel members and other miscellaneous metals from the western portion of the building (Building 6H) were transported to a local recycling facility.
The container transportation route continues to use Shelton Avenue, Munson Street, Dixwell Avenue, Henry Street, Munson Street, Hillside Place, Prospect Street, Edwards Street, State Street, Ferry Street, and Middletown Avenue to reach the Anastasio railyard. As noted above, UNC/GE has transported a total of 113 containers to the railyard and anticipates transporting between four and six containers per day for at least the next two weeks. Future reports will provide more information.
Laura Glesby contributed to this article.
"Asbestos was literally falling down from the roof" before the remediation contractors even began their work last fall. Q: How much of that asbestos was ingested by residents over the years?
GE, one of the primary contractors, has a record of being a major polluter itself and has the corporate conscience of a stone. Jack Welch made zillions for GE and has memorialized himself in a business school. How many people did GE make sick or die while the dumping and cover up took place?<br /> Kim Harris is asking good questions.<br /> I hope she gets action and answers.<br />Q: Have any health exams been done for the residents?
Q: Has anyone tracked the diseases in the area over the last 20-30 years?
While it appears that everyone involved in the removal and remediation is presenting information to re-assure us that the process is safe and will completely remediate the site, "trust but verify" seems like a good approach.
PS. Wendy Hamilton picket the site at the start of this work and it never made the news. She alerted the neighbors nearby of the potential hazards from the clean up. Only a passerby remembered when it was still a working nuclear facility.
PPS The route for the trucks has been changed. Did Yale intervene?