Sep 8, 2007
Sewer plant, other work underway at former Gilbert & Bennett site
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Infrastructure work at the former Gilbert & Bennett wire mill site in Georgetown is progressing, and the expansion of the wastewater treatment plant is nearly complete.
Stephen Soler, president of Georgetown Land Development Co., which is redeveloping the site, recently gave an update on how work is going. His company is building a pedestrian-friendly village of mixed uses at the site.
The company got its state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) permit, so the water line has been installed at the site, said Mr. Soler. The line has been tied in to the Georgetown sewer plant, which the company is expanding at its own cost to accommodate its development needs. Since only certain elements of the existing facility could be used, a new plant is being built. Once the work is done, Redding or, in actuality, its Water Pollution Control Commission’s enterprise fund, would acquire the plant and its new footprint, subject to negotiations between GLDC and Redding.
By about mid-September, said Mr. Soler, the plant will be at least at 125,000-gallons-per-day capacity (capacity is now at 75,000 gallons per day), and by the end of October, at its full capacity (of 245,000 gallons per day). Diagnostic tests will be run before the plant is turned over to Redding, said Mr. Soler, who estimated that could happen by the end of the year.
A phosphorous treatment system will be installed at the plant next month, once a changeover order has been signed, said Mr. Soler.
The system will cost about $165,000 and will reduce phosphorous emissions from the plant per the permit issued by the DEP, he said on Tuesday.
Vincent Giordano, a former Ridgefield resident, took the DEP to court last year over the discharge permit it approved for the Georgetown sewer plant. In February of this year, Mr. Giordano withdrew his appeal after GLDC agreed to install the phosphorous treatment system. Last week, Mr. Giordano contacted The Redding Pilot office questioning whether the system was in place.
Rich Regan, acting chair of the Water Pollution Control Commission, said the system “has been approved and we’re adhering to the requirements of the DEP.”
Off-site roads have been approved by the state Department of Transportation (DOT), according to Mr. Soler, who said his company expects to file an encroachment permit in September. The Redding selectmen may be asked for a temporary closure on Portland Avenue in the vicinity of the veterinary hospital. “We are trying to do this over the winter, before we work in the state right-of-way,” said Mr. Soler. He added that firehouse traffic would not be hampered.
Other off-site work — on routes 57 and 107 — would be done in the spring, said Mr. Soler.
The “big issue,” he said, is the Remediation Action Plan approval. At a recent meeting on the plan, he said, the major comments were about dust and noise. He said his company will work closely with the state DEP and federal Environmental Protection Agency. Trucks will be on site to wet down material to keep dust down, and his company will try to keep the hours of construction work down, but he reminded people it will be a construction site.
The plan applies to the manufacturing area of the former wire mill facility north from Route 107 and to the southern parcel, south of Route 107 and home to the Georgetown sewer plant. It is designed to clean up the brownfield site and includes what will be done to remediate the buildings, soils and groundwater at the site.
Where there are areas of soil contamination, they will either be excavated or capped. The cap consists of a number of things, such as placing new buildings over the soil, or keeping existing buildings, or placing a liner system in between buildings to prevent any precipitation from contacting any of the soils.
Mr. Soler expects the remediation plan to be approved by the DEP in September. The length of the remediation process depends on the development of the site. The plan “kicks all else in gear,” said Mr. Soler.
He said his company is talking to a variety of tenants. The equipment has been ordered for the rail crossing.
Asked about any impact from the state of the subprime market, Mr. Soler said it has “dried up the ability of people to get jumbo mortgages, mortgages over $500,000.” He said there is talk jumbo mortgages will come back or Fannie Mae will come up with them.
Come September, he said, his company will have committed more than a $65-million investment into the project. “The good news,” he said, “is that we have a good project everybody likes.”
Upon further questioning, he said investors now want to see the infrastructure in place, including water and sewer. “No one wants to take a risk now,” he said. He later added that there is a “nervousness with state agencies and their oversight.”
Mr. Soler said his company will continue to provide the public with updates in its report, which it calls the Village Green. The first issue was recently inserted into The Redding Pilot.
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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