TIVERTON -- A Bay Street neighborhood group pushing for cleanup of suspected soil contamination has doubts about New England Gas Co.'s latest testing initiative, saying the plan "gets us no closer to bringing this nightmare to a close."
"At the rate we are going, we will all be old and gray before our properties are cleaned up," said Robert Ferreira, a member of North Tiverton neighborhood group ENACT, in a statement.
Still, when the oil company's environmental consultant, Timothy O'Connor of Vanasse Hangen and Brustlin, was pressed on specifics in front of the Town Council last night, he sounded hopeful that the soil testing would strive to be as comprehensive as ENACT wants it to be.
Gail Corvello, president of ENACT, wanted to know whether the testing would fully delineate the entire area of North Tiverton affected by the contaminants. O'Connor said he believed it would.
If evidence was found that contamination continues beyond a designated soil-digging spot, councilors wanted to know, would Vanasse Hangen and Brustlin follow the evidence onto another property?
At one point, O'Connor said "we would go to the next property." At another point, asked whether soil testers would dig "laterally" for other signs of alleged contamination, he said the soil testing is to be done "for the purpose of investigation, not for cleanup." Therefore, he said, the consultant would have to make a determination as to whether to dig "laterally" in a specific instance.
New England Gas last week unveiled two work plans which, combined, call for soil tests on 90 properties in North Tiverton.
One plan is to test again 67 properties that were tested last year. The other plan includes seven properties that denied the consultant permission to test last year and 16 additional properties that would be tested for the first time.
The gas company has said its goal is to begin the testing sometime next month. All told, O'Connor told the Town Council, the consultant would collect at least 908 soil samples. Some properties would receive surface tests while other properties would also receive deeper tests that go down several feet into the soil.
The state Department of Environmental Management is reviewing the plans and taking comment from residents and officials.
Southern Union, the parent company of New England Gas, bought the former Fall River Gas Co. in 1999. The defunct Fall River company is suspected of dumping gas plant waste decades ago in North Tiverton. State environmental officials gave a certificate of responsibility to Southern Union.
Some people living on roads off Bay Street have discovered blue-stained soil. Testing that has already been done detected levels of cancer-causing contaminants.
The gas company agreed to this, the second round of testing, after the state Department of Environmental Management, officials and residents said the first round didn't cut it.
ENACT, in a statement, said it wants the gas company to do:
"Comprehensive tests" on all lots in, and next to, the Bay Street Study Area, to figure out how many properties are contaminated. The idea, ENACT believes, is to "delineate" the full extent of the site.
Tests that fully determine the extent of contaminants on each lot and "document the health risk of exposure to toxic contamination discovered."
"Timely and comprehensive" cleanup to "rid the properties of toxic threats."
ARTICLE TOOLS: 
