Connecticut DEP Inspecting Former Auto Scrap Yard

Connecticut state officials are scheduled to inspect the former Turnpike Auto Wreckers site in Westbrook, Ct., to see if it is ready for environmental testing.

Tony Palermo, First Selectman for Westbrook, said the state's Department of Environmental Protection’s visit is a necessary step toward getting Phase 2 testing of the site.

Testing of the site are to be conducted by Metcalf & Eddy environmental engineers, a DEP contractor.

Results of soil testing would be used to develop an environmental reclamation plan for the property, which might qualify for federal funds.

To prepare for testing, "we needed to have the surface of the property cleaned off, and that’s 95 percent complete," Palermo said.

The town budgeted $70,000 to pay for removing countless tires that lay on or were buried in the site as a way to help control mosquitoes.

Palermo was advised recently that the state agency has federal money to pay for testing for contaminants.

The site was used as a motor vehicle junkyard from the 1940s until 1993, when it was closed through bankruptcy of its owner, John Hotkowski.

Town officials want to get the property rehabilitated and back on the tax rolls. Palermo said he would like to see it eventually put back into use as a business property.

Under government regulations, a town that acquires a contaminated site has a financial liability for cleanup costs up to the market value.

Hotkowski remains under a 2001 state order to environmentally clean up the property and is under a court order to pay fines that now total about $280,000. The bill for delinquent town taxes on the property also is more than $140,000.

The town recently took Hotkowski back to court for non-compliance. The case was scheduled to be taken up Jan. 27, but Palermo said that has been put off because Hotkowski’s lawyer, Thomas Cloutier, had requested files from the town regarding the property.

Thomas RisCassi, a DEP supervising environmental analyst who will be one of those touring the site today, said the state agency has money provided through the federal "brownfields" property-reclamation program to do soil testing on the Turnpike Auto Wreckers site.

If the testing is undertaken, Metcalf & Eddy also will determine cost estimates for cleanup "and propose a work plan."

A DEP study of the site done in 2001 yielded an environmental cleanup estimate of $4 million, according to Cloutier.