[B]ENNINGTON — A contractor hired by the federal Environmental Protection Agency is surveying a system of monitoring wells around the former Jard Company Inc. site on Bowen Road, in anticipation of further remediation work to deal with PCB contamination.
The parcel, which is on the National Priorities List of Superfund sites, previously underwent a $1.9 million cleanup project that was completed in 2007. That work removed some 3,700 tons of contaminated soil and debris, razed the 120,000-square-foot former electric capacitor factory and capped the mill site.
In addition, the initial project cleaned some nearby residents’ properties of PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) contamination. The area is served by town water, which was not affected, and the EPA sealed a few private wells that were located around the plant.
However, PCB contamination had spread to a few nearby home basements, which were cleaned and sealed, and had entered the groundwater. A system of monitoring wells was created during the past cleanup work, and the first task of the current project was to survey the condition of those wells, said Linda Elliott, environmental analyst with the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.
She said the goal is to determine whether the pollution has spread further in the groundwater, into wetlands areas, or as far as the Roaring Branch of the Walloomsac River to the south — or whether the contamination plume has stabilized.
The assessment could be followed by development of a long-term mediation plan, Elliott said.
She said the availability of federal funding could play a role in the project. Federal funding for follow-up steps in the process apparently has not been available until recently, she said, and it is possible the EPA will wait until the administration of President-elect Donald Trump takes over before making final decisions on priorities.
“We hope they have some funding,” Elliott said, referring to the Bennington project.
A conceptual model of the extent of the PCB pollution was developed previously, Elliott said, and new testing and monitoring will determine whether there has been further migration of the contamination. The effects on soils, surface water, wetlands, the river and fish and wildlife also will be examined.
AECOM, a firm with headquarter offices in Los Angeles and New York and offices in several foreign nations, was retained to perform the work, Elliott said.
A spokeswoman for the EPA said Friday that no further announcements about the Jard project are planned at this time.
Jard Company opened the capacitor factory in 1969 and closed it in 1989 during a bankruptcy. The 36-acre parcel was later abandoned for several years. Currently, the town owns about 24 acres that were not contaminated, and the remaining 12 acres are the focus of the Superfund process.
The Bowen Road factory site is near Park Street and close to North Branch Street. The Bennington Little League field and a duck pond off Park Street are close to the affected area, which also is not far from the Vermont Department of Transportation garage to the east and the Monument Square Shopping Center off Kocher Drive to the west.
There is also a wetlands area behind the center, and the Roaring Branch meanders past to the south.
