Fairfield Fill Pile Price Tag: $19 Million To $31 Million

FAIRFIELD, CT — The cost to clean up contamination and other issues related to the mishandling of the Fairfield fill pile are projected to range from $19 million to $31 million, town officials said Tuesday.

“These numbers are fluid,” First Selectwoman Brenda Kupchick said at a joint meeting of the Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting held over Webex. “Believe me, I pray that it’s lower.”

The pile is at the center of a contamination crisis that started in 2013, when Fairfield hired Julian Development to operate the site and reduce its footprint. Instead, the pile tripled in size over three years, and days before the agreement with Julian was set to end, contaminants were discovered, leading to a police investigation and charges against seven people, most of whom are former town employees.

Fill from the pile, which in some cases contained asbestos and polychlorinated biphenyls, has been suspected or confirmed at 39 sites across Fairfield, including schools and parks. Site cleanup is being handled under a negotiated consent order and must be certified and filed with state environmental officials. Twenty-seven of the sites have already been addressed.

Remediation of the pile itself is expected to cost between $4 million and $8 million, according to the town, and will be subject to state and federal environmental regulations.

“Estimates from (the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection) could range as high as $100 million,” according to a note about the pile included in Tuesday’s presentation. “Negotiations are underway — all estimates are contingent upon regulatory agencies’ approval (DEEP, EPA, FEMA).”

Closing and cleaning up the pile will likely include excavation, capping and ongoing groundwater monitoring, and a town hall-style meeting will be held to discuss plans for the property when they are more fully developed, according to Mike Miller, an attorney representing the town.

The most expensive item included in Fairfield's projected pile-related costs is remediation and reconstruction for the ill-fated Penfield Pavilion, which could total $18 million combined. Destroyed by Hurricane Sandy a year after it was completed in 2011, the facility was rebuilt in 2017, but did not comply with Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations and had improperly placed horizontal grade beams. The town was denied a $4.3 million FEMA reimbursement in 2018 and now must correct the violation. Both the pavilion and its parking lot received fill from the contaminated pile.

Construction work on the facility is estimated at $7 million to $10 million, with remediation of its parking lot and main site projected at $5 million to $8 million. Plans for the building could include demolition, relocation or repair, according to Kupchick, who noted that the air and sand around the pavilion has been tested and is safe.

Board of Finance member Kevin Starke asked Tuesday if the town was “just bending over and taking this” from FEMA.

“We’re not getting anything back from them,” he said. “We’re going to spend money renovating a building for the third time for no good reason.”

Kupchick had said earlier that if the facility was not made FEMA compliant, Fairfield homeowners could be at risk of having their FEMA flood insurance revoked.

“I don’t really like that language being used at a town meeting,” Kupchick told Starke. “We are, as an administration, in discussion with FEMA, and when we have some information from them we will then put together some options that align with the law.”

In total, Fairfield has appropriated $11.7 million so far for its town-wide contamination issues, the majority of which is from surplus transfers. It has also expended $4.4 million, primarily on environmental investigations, remediation and legal fees.

“I want our residents to know that we are working to clean this up,” Kupchick said. “Unfortunately, we’ll be doing this for quite a while.”