The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday the review of cleanups at Superfund sites in New England scheduled for fiscal year 2016, including one in Maine.
EPA’s Superfund program is responsible for cleaning up some of the nation’s most contaminated land and responding to environmental emergencies, oil spills and natural disasters, according to its website. The purpose of the reviews is to ensure continued protection of public health and the environment.
The 5-acre Meddybemps site in Washington County is the former location of the Eastern Surplus Company, a retailer of Army surplus and salvage items that operated from 1946 to the early 1980s. Facility operations contaminated soil and groundwater with hazardous chemicals.
The Eastern Surplus cleanup began in the mid-1980s and included the removal of hundreds of drums and containers of hazardous chemicals, as well as an estimated 16,000 pounds of calcium carbide, an irritant that reacts with water to produce flammable gases, according to BDN archives. The costly cleanup successfully removed most surface contamination.
A groundwater treatment system was placed on the site in 2000 to reduce contamination that seeped into the bedrock north of Route 191, which bisects the property.
There are 16 Superfund sites in Maine, according to the EPA website.
In addition to the Meddybemps site, reviews will be conducted at one Connecticut facility, three sites in Massachusetts, three in New Hampshire and one in Vermont.
