The town of Warren has applied again for federal funding to clean up a large pile of toxic carpet waste on the side of Route 90, after it was denied an earlier request for $2 million to pay for the work. This time, the town is seeking double that amount.
The 300,000 cubic yards of carpet have littered a local property since the late 1990s, when Chester Randall Dunican and his wife, Kathleen, began dumping the material there after claiming it could serve as berms for a proposed rifle range.
Much of the highly flammable carpet remains there, steadily leaking per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds, or PFAS, into the topsoil. It would be enough material to fill 90 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Last year, the town applied for $2 million through the federal Brownfields program, which funds the assessment, clean up and reuse of contaminated properties, but it did not receive the funding.
In November of this year, the town submitted its second application, this time for $4 million. Town Planner Dan DeBord said the town asked for double the funds because of an increase in the cost of removing the material, and because a new estimate showed that there is even more carpet on the property than officials initially thought.
“It has been basically a net negative for the town for 30 years,” DeBord said. “We’re optimistic that we can take what has been a drain on resources, an environmental hazard — a nightmarish environmental hazard — and turn it into a win, turn it into a success story.”
This time, DeBord and others who worked on the grant application tried to improve it using feedback they received from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They focused more on the potential of the property once it’s cleaned up rather than the history of the town, DeBord said.
Town Manager Sherry Howard is hopeful that this application will bring the funds to clean up the property. However, DeBord noted that it’s common for applicants to have to apply for several years before receiving the funding they ask for.
If Warren doesn’t receive the grant this year, they’ll apply again, and again.
“We’re going to keep trying and trying, and each time, make it better,” Howard said.
