The town of Merrimack is home to a 13-acre plot of land that is considered to be one of the most contaminated spots in New Hampshire. Town leaders are hoping for federal superfund money to restore the site. But those hopes are fading as funds for the program shrink. NHPR?s Dan Gorenstein reports.
The town of Merrimack is home to a 13-acre plot of land that is considered to be one of the most contaminated spots in New Hampshire. Town leaders are hoping for federal superfund money to restore the site. But those hopes are fading as funds for the program shrink. NHPR?s Dan Gorenstein reports.
The former New Hampshire Plating Company site, is now an empty lot on a quite street in Merrimack. Jay Minkhara Merrimack?s Community Development Director is reading the warning sign that is posted to the chain-link fence surrounding the property.
Sfx: Jay reading ?Warning Sign? Track 12
From 1962-1985 New Hampshire Plating dumped heavy metals and cyanide into nearby lagoons, contaminating the groundwater. Just four miles away sit drinking water wells for approximately 40 thousand people. In 1992 the site was added to the federal superfund list making it eligible for a federal cleanup.
Eight years later, the town received what is called a redevelopment grant from the government. It was 66 thousand dollars to help redesign a site that Minkhara describes as a blemish. After a number of public meetings, the town decided on ball fields. Again, Jay Minkhara.
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:50 in Merrimack it has been a growing community, and there is a very high level of participating in sports. Gernerally in town, there is a need for additional fields, this is centrally located?and b/c there is other undeveloped land nearby, it seems like the potential for other growth.
Work on the site, such as demolishing the contaminated building and removing debris began in the 80?s. But the EPA is only now finishing up the site?s remediation plan. While Minkhara admits, it?s been a long time, he?s not impatient.
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1:00 I think it is less a matter of how many years we end up waiting as much as working with the knowledge that we are progresseing toward an end point. So long as we believe a plan is in place to restore and close up the site, and that we are on track, than I think the actual amount of time we wait is less significant.
But Minkhara is worried the project may not be on track anymore. EPA spokesperson Peyton Flemming says the government has 100 million dollars available for projects, but New Hmaphshire Plating is a low priority.
5:32 My understanding is that some of that money goes to cleanups already taking place, and the rest of the money would go towards some of the cleanup sites that are on a waiting list. NH Plating, is not one of those sites, b/c the design plan has not been concluded yet.
Flemming says plans should be complete by the end of the summer. He says the agency will ask for an estimated ten million dollars for cleanup, but is unclear when funding will become available.
Since the inception of the Superfund program in 1980, the government has tried to hold polluters accountable for damaging the environment. But sometimes, says US Senator Bob Smith, the EPA requires one polluter to pay for the entire cleanup, even if they aren?t the sole polluters. The Republican Senator says that?s not right. He?s been trying to get Congress to support what he calls fair share allocation.
:56 ? Which means that if you owe 15%, you pay 15%. So what has been happening?the money was going to lawsuits, and paying lawyers and not the cleanup. So what Bush has said is we need to reform the program. And I agree we need to reform the program.
Under the Fair Share Plan, Smith suggests, companies would enter into binding arbitration, and pay their percentage of the cleanup. This way, he says, money won?t be wasted on litigation. And if some portion of the cleanup is unaccounted for, the taxpayers pick up the tab.
The Natural Resources Defense Council?s Wesley Warren says efforts like Smith?s haven?t received much support.
4:00 there have been a number of proposals to try to reduce the responsibility of corporations to pay for cleanup with complicated schemes to try to assign specific liability to specific companies, in specific amounts. These schemes don?t work.
Warren says a better approach is to reinstate a broad-based tax on chemical and oil companies that expired in 1996. That money used to go into a fund to cover cleanups that weren?t paid for by individual polluters. Republican Congressman John E. Sununu, who is challenging Smith for his seat, agrees. The likely Democratic nomiee for Senate, Governor Jeanne Shaheen was not available for comment, but her campaigns says she won?t support any plan that leaves tax payers holding the bag for superfund cleanup. For NHPR News, I?m DG.
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