Greenwich High Soil Remediation More Costly, Hazardous Than Expected

GREENWICH, CT — More hazardous material than expected is being discovered at the Greenwich High School athletic fields during the latest remediation work, so the Greenwich Board of Estimate and Taxation and Representative Town Meeting last week approved an interim appropriation of $2 million to cover the extra cost associated with the project.

Department of Public Works Commissioner Amy Siebert appeared before the BET Budget Committee earlier this month to explain why the additional funds were needed.

Recent work has centered around fields two and five, which are the grass/turf baseball and softball fields, and other minor areas around the site.

As crews have dug large squares — or "step-outs" — and performed sampling work, they've had to check to see if there's more material that needs to be taken out, Siebert said.

"What it has resulted in is this summer we've taken more material out of field two, some extra out of field five, and we're continuing on with some of these step-outs," Siebert said.

Additionally, Siebert said workers have found material that's been more hazardous than what has typically been taken out. This material also needs to be disposed of at a special site.

"We realized we needed to get in here since we all know we need this finished, and we needed to come in and get that funding for all the work surrounding that," Siebert said.

During RTM committee meetings recently, Siebert said delaying the funding until the regular budget process could be more expensive. With the interim appropriation, work can continue through the fall.

The town has been working on soil remediation at GHS for over 10 years. PCBs and other harmful materials were discovered in 2011.

BET Budget Committee Chair Leslie Tarkington last week said to date, minus the latest appropriation, a little over $38 million has been spent on the remediation project.

For more on the GHS soil remediation project, click here.