Flooding, Contamination Concerns At Possible Public Works Site

About 30 people spent a cold, windy Saturday morning touring a five-acre site along the Branford River. It wasn’t a nature hike, but rather a chance to see the second-choice site for a proposed $10 million town public works facility. 

Public Works Director Art Baker (pictured above), who gave a tour of the buildings and property at 20 Northeast Industrial Road, talked about the site and its drawbacks. He said the two main concerns are contamination from a prior tanker-washing business and the potential for flooding since a portion of the site is in a flood plain.

The property on Northeast Industrial Road, located behind the Tremonte Auto Group dealership on East Main Street, is owned by Quality Carriers Inc. of Florida. The two existing buildings were used for repairing trucks and for washing the interior of tanker trucks. It is on the market for $1.25 million.

Baker said an environmental report of the property, commissioned by the owners, revealed contamination that was apparently caused when water that flushed out the interior of tanker trucks subsequently leaked from pipes leading to a nearby on-site treatment facility.

“It’s in the soil, under the ground,” Baker said of the contaminants.

Realtor Frank Hird , of O,R& L Commercial, said the owners will remediate the contaminated area before the property is sold. ​“They are committed to doing the environmental cleanup,” he told the crowd Saturday.

Hird told the Eagle that the business closed about 1 ½ years ago, but that the tanker washing operation has been closed longer than that.

The truck-washing building and the treatment facility are near an area where the Branford River borders the northwest corner of the property. Baker said the flood plain comes up to one corner of the loading dock of the building.

During the tour, one resident commented about an explosion on the site several years ago. According to published reports in 1991, a tanker truck exploded on the property, which was then owned by Chemical Leaman Corp. Articles in the Hartford Courant said that the tanker explosion sent plumes of smoke and a sticky substance, later determined to be non-toxic, raining down on the neighborhood. Click here to read one of the articles.

Public Hearing

A public tour of the town-owned Tabor Drive site, previously selected by the buildings committee as its first choice for the new building, is scheduled Saturday, March 3, at 10 a.m.

The Board of Selectmen (BOS) will hold a public hearing to discuss both site options on March 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Tabor Lutheran Church. A presentation on the sites will be made by consultant Jeff Alberti, of Weston & Sampson, an engineering firm that has designed 60 public works buildings. Click here to read a story about a previous BOS hearing regarding the Tabor site.

The seven-member Public Works Committee, which has been searching for sites for more than 14 months, initially looked at seven possible locations. Five sites were ruled out after the consultant conducted a fatal-flaws analysis. The two remaining sites were Tabor Drive, which the committee unanimously approved and the Northeast Industrial Road site.

Here is an inside view of the Northeast Industrial Road facility.

The consultant estimated total construction costs for the Department of Public Works (DPW) facility would be about $10 million for either of the two possible locations. 

The project must be approved by the BOS, the Board of Finance and the Representative Town Meeting.(RTM) Additional approvals may be needed from the Inland Wetlands and Planning and Zoning commissions. Several RTM members took the tour.

The DPW has been housed in a rental facility on Route 139 since their previous building on North Main Street was demolished to make way for construction of the new fire headquarters.

20 Northeast Industrial Road

Baker handed out copies of sketches on Saturday for two possible layouts for a DPW facility at Northeast Industrial Road. The two-existing buildings would be renovated, and a third one would be constructed.

“These are just concepts,” Baker said, adding that detailed plans cannot be designed until town boards approve a site. 

The realtor also distributed a map of the property and information showing that the buildings were constructed in 1981 and that real estate taxes are $16,018 annually. The front building facing Northeast Industrial Road is about 6,000 square feet with 1,500 square feet of office space on the second floor.

The rear building, which was used as the tanker washing facility, is 6,700 square-feet with 540-square feet of office space. There is truck-washing equipment in the building, but Baker said it would be removed. The treatment facility is to the right of the building.

Since the two existing buildings are not large enough to accommodate the needs of the DPW, a third building would be constructed on a vacant portion of the lot.

Baker said he prefers having all operations in one building, which would be possible at Tabor, but that the three-building campus would be feasible.

Earlier Saturday, there was a tour of the rental facility currently being used by the DPW.

Second Selectman Andy Campbell organized the tours to give residents, town officials and the media a chance to see the properties and speak with Baker.

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