Wilmington Wants Olin To Pay For Water Line Extension

WILMINGTON, MA — Town officials have asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to back its push to have Olin Corp. pay for the extension of a water line on Cook Avenue in Wilmington. Residents in the neighborhood have had to rely on bottled drinking water for years after their wells were contaminated with NDMA from an Olin plant, which is now a Superfund cleanup site under EPA guidelines.

"Since the reasons for such a connection are solely due to the contaminants from the Olin Chemical Superfund site, the Olin Corporation and other potentially responsible parties must be required to take full responsibility for covering the cost to make such a connection to these homes," Town Manager Jeffrey Hull wrote in a letter to the EPA. Hull discussed the letter at Monday night's board of selectmen meeting.

Preliminary estimates put the cost of extending town water services to five homes on Cook Avenue and two homes on Burnham Street at $430,000. Selectman Michael McCoy suggested the town should pay for the installation if EPA has not ordered Olin to do so by mid-September.

"We have the money in free cash," McCoy said. "If EPA isn’t doing something by mid-September, then we should take action and have Town Counsel put an attachment on Olin."

EPA placed the contaminated, 53-acre site in Wilmington on its emphasis list in April. The new status means the Olin Chemical site at 51 Eames Street will get fast-track status for clean-up of soil and groundwater contamination under the federal government's Sueprfund program. The new status also means EPA will also work with developers and Wilmington officials on reuse plans for the site.

Olin Chemical made specialty chemicals for the rubber and plastics on the site before closing in 1986. Contamination on the site spread, and forced the town to close drinking water supply wells in 2002. The site has been on EPA's national priorities list since 2006.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).