Clean-up of Fernwood Ave site planned in Rochester (NY)

The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (NY) recently reported this news:

Barring a flood of public comments, state environmental officials could decide early next month on a cleanup option for a site in northeast Rochester where soil and groundwater are contaminated with toxic solvents.

And judging by attendance at a public meeting on the site Tuesday evening, a flood of further comments is unlikely. “It’s sad in the neighborhood — there’s just no interest,” said Sue Buehner, one of two or three citizens who attended the meeting in the library at School 36.

The session focused on problems at 42 Fernwood Ave., a small commercial building where Preferred Electric Motors reconditioned motors from the early 1950s until the business closed eight years ago. In the process, the company spilled or dumped toxic solvents, including trichloroethene, or TCE.

After an anonymous tip about leaking chemical drums in 2000, state Department of Environmental Conservation officials found solvents in soil and groundwater.

They also discovered very high levels of TCE vapors infiltrating a neighboring rental home, and health officials ordered that it remain unoccupied until a system was installed to pull the potentially harmful vapors from the soil.

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The DEC paid for removal of soil and an underground storage tank in 2001. In more recent years, state officials returned to the area to test a dozen structures for vapors, and installed a ventilation system in one home.

Now the agency has proposed a permanent cleanup that would involve removal of more tainted soil, capping that area with asphalt, cleaning the building’s floor and placing material underground that would promote degradation of the remaining solvents.

The work would cost $1.1 million. “It blows my mind that they’re going to spend $1 million to do what they’re going to do,” said Buehner, whose home abuts Preferred Electric’s former property.

During the session, she asked DEC and state Department of Health officials several questions about how much contact they’ve had with residents since the contamination was found.

“We tried to inform the surrounding community as best we could,” responded Melissa Menetti, a public health specialist.

After the meeting, Buehner said she was pleased that so many experts — about 10 — were present to answer questions. She and her husband John, who also attended, said they were assured Tuesday that their home would be tested for TCE vapors next year.

A formal cleanup decision likely will be made in April, said Valerie Woodward, the DEC project manager. Work would start in one to two years.

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