Town awaits study for Pfizer property in need of remediation

Thanks to the efforts of the town's Citizen's Advisory Panel, cleanup of a contaminated area may finally be moving forward after decades of effort. The panel has been closely following progress at the Pharmacia & Upjohn Company LLC Site at 41 Stiles Lane, owned by Pfizer Inc.

For decades, the site was used for chemical manufacturing, and when Upjohn Company became the owner, it was used for manufacturing purposes. Upjohn merged with the Pharmacia Corporation, which later merged with Pfizer in 2003.

The Citizens' Advisory Panel was formed around a decade ago, after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an order against the Upjohn site. It was designed for educational purposes, and to meet with representatives of the company to discuss remediation possibilities.

"Our function is really just to review information that's produced by the company, and meet with the company periodically," explained David Monz, chairman of the advisory panel. "The end product of that process will be to remediate certain portions of the site and hopefully render significant portions for use."

At an Oct. 21 meeting, Pfizer presented the panel with five different alternatives for remediation of the site. The option the company preferred would leave 17 acres of the western portion of the site available for commercial development, while creating both inland and tidal wetlands and a public access walking trail.

Some protective work has already been done, and Pfizer has already presented preliminary remediation concepts. The work done by Pfizer has been in preparation for a Corrective Measures Study (CMS) it intends to submit to the EPA, designed to identify long-term cleanup alternatives for the site. The Advisory Panel will also have a chance to evaluate the CMS and make suggestions to the EPA on behalf of the town.

Under the U.S. Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Pfizer must meet certain conditions for the safety of the area. The act was designed to give the EPA greater control over hazardous waste in order to limit risks. These conditions include protection of human health and environment, abiding by numerical contamination limits, controlling any releases from the site, and evaluating the effectiveness and reliability of remedies over both the short and long term.

"We've got a site where there is a significant amount of known contamination which is stabilized," said Monz. "But the remedy the EPA ultimately approves will render the site safe as we move into the future...this can return at least some of the site to productive use for the town."

"It's a very difficult situation," said First Selectman Janet McCarty. "It's a contaminated area, it's on the river, and it's taken this many years to get their corrective measures study together."

McCarty said that the best option would be to take the contaminants out completely, but that step would prove to be very expensive. Monz agreed, estimating that the cost would run at least in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Now, it appears, the town and the panel must play the waiting game for a little while longer.

"We're eagerly awaiting the Corrective Measures Study," said Monz. "It's really the critical piece of information that the town has been waiting for and working towards."