You may already know the history of the Jones & Lamson building on Clinton Street in Springfield.  You many not know that it sits right on the banks of the Black River and that it is considered a brownfield property ~ basically an old industrial site that has some level of contamination in the soil.  On Septmeber 25, 2006, I attended a public hearing to address the assessment of the site, the future plans for the site, and how to get from assessment to cleanup to re-use.

 

Guiding the presentations and discussion was Bob Flint of the Springfield Regional Development Corporation, who has been working diligently for some time to get this property cleaned up and useful again, with a goal of enhancing Springfield's economy.

 

Also present were Alan Peterson of the EPA (up from Boston for this meeting); Trish Coppolino with the VT Department of Environmental Conservation (she talked about the contaminated property program); Becky Basch of the Southern Windsor Regional Planning Commission; Chad Farrell and Rhonda Kay of the Johnson Company of Montpelier, the company that has assessed the J&L site and is making recommendations for its cleanup and future use.

 

Jones & Lamson was established in Springfield in 1888 ~ they produced everything from wrenches to rifles.  In April of 1889, James Hartness joined J&L as superintendent, and two years later, he invented the flat turret lathe, "one of the most important machine tools ever made." http://www.hartnesshouse.com/hartness-history.shtml  Springfield, Vermont became one of the most important producers of precision machine tools in the world.

 

As the global economy shifted in other directions, the J&L building closed its doors and has fallen into disrepair, ending up on the growing list of 'brownfields' properties: old industrial sites in need of cleaning up.

 

The J&L manufacturing process used cutting oils with PCBs, and the metals were cleaned and purified using chlorinated solvents.  There are a number of sites that the Johnson Company is concerned with cleaning up:

 

~ the chip shed, where metal chips were stored while waiting for rail transport (they were treated with oils at the chip shed);

 

~ the solid waste disposal site, out back by the river;

 

~ solvent storage and heat treatment site;

 

~ oil storage in an above-ground storage tank (AST).

 

There is also an underground, off-site source of coal-tar that seems to be migrating onto the J&L site from across Clinton Street; this will be looked at in terms of ways to isolate the source and prevent further migration.  The chlorinated solvent has spread out under the cement pad that the building is on; testing on this pad should begin in October.  Other testing results should be in sometime in late November, and demolition and removal of contaminated materials could start in early 2007.  All told, the redevelopment plans call for rehabilitating a third of the building, keeping another third for 5 years and marketing it for redevelopment, and taking down the remaining third.  Whether or not the concrete slab will be removed will likely depend on whether it is contaminated with PCBs and on the cost of removal.

 

There was some technical talk, mostly about the ways in which these chemicals move and ways in which the site can be rehabilitated.  I asked where the excavated contaminated materials would go, and the answer is that they will be hauled to a hazmat site that is permitted to contain it; a lot depends on which chemicals are present in the materials.  Rehabilitation involves putting in place what they called 'engineering controls': things like an HVAC system and plastic liner to keep the site safe for future human use as well as for animals foraging nearby and the river itself.

 

Reports are available for public review at the SRDC offices (14 Clinton Street in Springfield) and at the Planning Commission offices (Ascutney Professional Bldg, Route 5 South in Ascutney).  Becky Basch at the Planning Commission would be happy to answer any questions you might have; if you have more technical questions, Trish Coppolino at VT DEC can probably help you.  Please let me know if you'd like email addresses for either person.

 

The state of Vermont is doing water sampling in the Black River above and below the J&L site; results of those test will be coming along, probably by the first of the year.  There are also monitoring wells between the building and the river.  Among the criteria the state will be looking for will be the presence of metals. 

 

I met with Jim Kellogg and Steve Fiske of the state's water quality division last week, to get some practical experience with their methods, as well as to take another look at the river behind the J&L property.  According to Jim's preliminary findings: