Sludge Watch ==> CT - PCB laced sewage sludge now contaminates treatment plant construction

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

This town may still have PCBs in their sewer pipes ... drizzling it into 
their sewage sludge that may be going to land application.  You see..the 
guys who wrote the sludge regs just presumed there would be no PCBs ...and 
generally sludge is never tested for PCBs.

The PCBs in the sewers can stick to the bottom of the pipes, and can be 
dislodged into sludge during sewer cleaning.

This is what happened last year in Milwaukee.


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southington CT

Industrial Waste Will Delay Sewage Plant Expansion
By KEN BYRON | Courant Staff Writer
April 15, 2008


`SOUTHINGTON — - The remains of industrial wastes that were illegally pumped 
into the sewers decades ago have delayed a town construction project and may 
make it more costly.

Officials said Monday that they have halted construction of an addition to 
the sewage treatment plant because sludge contaminated with PCBs and other 
chemicals was found in the ground where the addition is planned. Remediation 
is expected to delay the work by at least a month and could add $14 million 
to the project's cost, the town council was told.

The contaminated sludge was found more than a week ago, and work has been 
stopped since then. A town consultant said it is not clear when work could 
resume or how much remediation must be done.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency must approve a cleanup plan, 
officials said.




Kathleen Cyr of GZA, the town's environmental consulting agency, told the 
council she is confident the EPA will act quickly once a plan is proposed. 
She said some of the sludge will have to be removed from the site.

"We will be smart about this," Cyr said. "We will try to minimize what needs 
to be done and be as economical as we can be."

The sludge is more than 30 years old and came from the sewage plant.

Sewage plant Superintendent John De Gioia told the council that for a number 
of years, sludge from the plant was stored on the site until it could be 
taken away. He said that practice stopped in the 1970s, and the contaminated 
sludge that was dug up is the residue of the pile that once was there.

Cyr said PCBs are not usually found in sewage. De Gioia said a number of 
companies were illegally dumping waste water laced with the chemical into 
the town's sewers and without the town's knowledge.

When work on the plant expansion started in February, officials believed the 
building site was clean. But the sludge was discovered earlier this month 
during digging of a well from which groundwater would be pumped.

The addition will remove nitrogen from the sewage plant's effluent. That is 
being done to comply with state regulations on nitrogen levels.

Contact Ken Byron at kbyron at courant.com.

http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-soutc0415.artapr15,0,2220232.story