Contamination At Fairfield Public Works Yard Illegal, State Says

FAIRFIELD, CT — After months of concern about contamination in Fairfield, the town has received a notice from the state environmental agency, which said the presence of PCBs in soil at the public works yard is illegal.

The notice, dated Oct. 31 and marked with a "received" stamp of Nov. 6 from the first selectman's office, cites the location of the violation as 1 Richard White Way, which is the address of Fairfield's public works yard and other town services. At the yard is the town fill pile, which is the focus of a controversy involving three men charged with multiple felonies and the discovery of contaminants at public properties across Fairfield.

In the notice, the Department of Energy & Environmental Protection cited information from Osprey Environmental documenting PCB contamination in soil up to 9.6 parts per million and in sediment up to 8.6 ppm.

"Based on the findings, these conditions have created a source of pollution to the waters of the State without a permit," the notice said, warning the town it has 30 days to fix the problem.

First Selectman Mike Tetreau, a Democrat who will cede his office Monday to newly elected town leader Brenda Kupchick, a Republican, said the town was surprised by the notice and is in the process of responding to the department. The contamination mentioned by the state was documented in 2016 and 2018, and is published on the town website, Tetreau said, adding Fairfield officials hope to get a more detailed explanation of the department's intent and specific concerns.

"Our question to them is really, 'help us understand what you want,'" Tetreau said.

Fairfield won't be able to address the issue in the stipulated 30 days, Tetreau said, so the town hopes to discuss a realistic extension, considering the lack of details in the notice and Fairfield's pending leadership change. He said that while the town has recently been in communication with the department's solid waste division, the notice is from the storage tank and PCB enforcement unit.

Tetreau also said that while a $25,000 daily penalty referenced in the notice was legally possible, the fine was likely meant to incentivize notice recipients to respond quickly, rather than something frequently enforced.

In addition to sending the notice, department staff have been seen twice at the fill pile in the last month, once conducting tests Oct. 30 at the request of law enforcement, and again Wednesday.

Court proceedings are ongoing for former public works superintendent Scott Bartlett, former public works director Joe Michelangelo and Julian Companies Owner Jason Julian, all of whom are charged with financial and environmental crimes in connection with the pile. Each of the three men have pleaded not guilty and requested a jury trial.

Fairfield hired Julian Development in 2013 to operate the fill pile and reduce the amount of unused project material by 40,000 cubic yards. But over the next three years, the pile more than doubled in size, and days before the agreement was set to end, contaminants were discovered on the property.

After conservation officials said the transportation and dumping of contaminated material could have violated state or federal law, police opened an investigation in 2017, which resulted in the arrests.

In August, around the same time that Bartlett, Julian and Michelangelo were charged, asbestos at a local park was reported to police, and not long after that, the town released a list of 20 priority contamination testing sites that received fill from the pile when it was operated by Julian.

Since then, at least 66 areas in Fairfield have been tested for contamination. The vast majority have been deemed safe, but some sites were found to contain asbestos, arsenic and other contaminants.