Several homeowners became furious at a public meeting Wednesday when they learned their homes were in an area of contamination near a former factory site after town officials had assured them in letters that they were outside the contamination plume.
The residents, who live in the same neighborhood as the contaminated site of the former Keystone Metal Finishers factory on Raydol Avenue, had sought letters in May 1999 after initial reports showed that contamination had spread off the factory site and under homes in the neighborhood. Residents whose homes appeared outside the original projected contamination plume asked the town to send them a letter saying that their homes were not affected. The letters were needed before they could try to sell their homes.
During this past Wednesday’s Keystone contamination committee meeting, however, some of these residents compared the map presented at the meeting with the map they had received in the mail and discovered they were indeed inside the contamination plume – a fact that may jeopardize the sale of their homes. At least one resident threatened legal action.
Two home owners on Golden Avenue, Anthony Ramos and Janet Reinke, each received the same letter, one in July and one in September, along with an 18-month old map of the contamination site, even though the town had developed a new map in May of 2000 showing their homes could be in the projected contaminated area.
In 1999, the PMK Group had created a computer-generated map that showed the potential spread of contamination to the groundwater under homes near the factory. A later map issued in May of 2000 showed a changed direction of the plume, affecting some homes not originally predicted in the original.
The letters sent to residents, which were issued by the town administrator with the authorization of the mayor and council, stated, “It has been determined that your property is not directly impacted by the presence of the groundwater contaminants emanating from the Keystone Metal site.”
Ramos and Reinke are trying to sell their homes and relied on the information the town sent to make that possible.
Although Mayor Dennis Elwell said town officials had always maintained that the original map was only a projection, he looked shaken on the dais after residents threatened to take legal action if the sales collapsed.
None of the public officials apparently had expected the plume predictions to change so radically in the year and a half since the original map was issued. But the real problem was the town’s continuing to issue the original map months after knowing the contamination affected other homes.
“I didn’t give residents the new map because the Keystone Committee never gave me the new map and said ‘Anthony, mail this map,'” said Town Administrator Anthony Iacono said after Wednesday’s meeting.
To date, no home in the original plume actually has been sold. No one yet knows if the contamination will hamper sales or reduce the sale value.
In 1999, the tax assessor reassessed the land values properties in the original plume. This has not been done for those newly-affected homes.
Residents and real estate agents who were present at the meeting said the new information had to be disclosed to the potential buyers.
“We’re going to get sued,” one of these residents shouted. “And if we get sued, you can guarantee we’re going to sue the town.”
Town officials had previously privately questioned the wisdom of issuing any official letter declaring any part of the area “clear of contamination,” partly because they knew relatively little. But under the pressure of frightened residents in 1999, the town compromised by issuing letters to those residents believed to be outside the plume.
Iacono said the letters were valid even though projections showed a possible spread of contamination under those homes. “If you look closely at the maps you’ll see black marks where the borings were taken,” he said. “Those are the places we’re absolutely certain have contamination.”
Demanding testing
Real estate agents and residents who attended Wednesday’s committee meeting demanded immediate testing be done in order to allow the sales to proceed. One resident who was scheduled to finalize the sale on the house a day after the Keystone meeting demanded an immediate test of his property.
PMK Group officials, however, said tests could not be conducted so quickly, requiring signing of access agreements and notification of utilities. They said the process would take at least three days even if they could start right away.
Iacono, however, said PMK would begin testing the two properties on Oct. 9 to determine if contamination does exist under them.
How it happened
Because the plume could be moving as quickly as 40 feet per year and new measurements by environmental engineers have better determined the outlines of the new plume, the new map showed that other properties were affected than originally predicted. Some properties originally in the plume were not in the plume on the second map, while other properties not in the original plume are now included. According to the PMK Group, the environmental engineers hired to map out and eventually clean up the contamination, the total number of properties affected rose from an original 23 to about 40 since May, 1999, when the contamination was first made public.
Local residents blamed town officials for not promptly notifying the newly-affected residents as soon as the potential threat to their property became known.
Edna Duffy – who missed two Keystone committee meetings – found out Wednesday that her mother’s home, previously outside the plume, was now affected.
“When the contamination was first revealed, the map showed half my property had contamination and my mother’s house had none,” Duffy said Wednesday. “Now, my mother’s property is also within the plume.”
Duffy wanted to know why residents affected by the change were never notified about being in the plume.
In 1999, then Mayor Anthony Just was accused of covering up the spread of contamination when he failed to promptly release information to residents that the contaminated water had spread under their homes. Several residents – after Wednesday’s committee meeting – claimed the Keystone Committee had done the same thing.
“It’s Deja Vu all over again,” said Dawn McAdam, one of the residents in the contaminated area. “Obviously, everyone in this area is at risk, and before you put your home up for sale, you’d better have the town come and test. And the town should be responsible.”
After the death of the Keystone factory’s owner in 1991, the federal Environmental Protection Agency cleared the site of many cancer-causing chemicals. Although health officials knew some of these had made their way into wells on the property, it wasn’t until 1997 that local officials became aware of the spreading contamination. Residents were not told about this situation until May 1999.
Although the state Department of Environmental Protection admits the chemicals can be hazardous, most if not all are trapped in a clay layer preventing them from rising to the surface. The biggest impact may be on the property values, which residents claim plummeted as soon as the original news of the contamination got out.
Councilman Chris Marra said the contamination committee had decided did not inform residents whose homes may now be within the newly projected plume because they wanted to wait and see what newly proposed testing uncovered. He said the new testing will help determine exactly which properties are contaminated and which properties are not.
New plan
The next phase of environmental testing is scheduled to start this weekend.
Marra said the cleanup plan just approved by the state Department of Environmental Protection would have the PMK Group begin testing individual properties to determine whether the properties actually have contamination under them and at what levels.
PMK officials said not all the newly affected properties are scheduled to be tested in the first batch scheduled to start on Columbus Day. Some property owners will have to wait until November for testing and then wait weeks more for the results. The new testing is necessary because previous tests of the water table were taken on public access property between the sidewalk and the curb, not directly on people’s property. From these tests, a computer-generated model of the contaminated area was developed. As more tests were taken, the affected area was redefined. The new tests proposed to begin on Oct. 9 on some properties would further determine the boundaries of the contamination. The second phase of testing scheduled to begin in November will determine if specific properties are contaminated.
Carol Link, a resident in the original plume, said the delay had left many people unable to sell their homes quickly.