SHUTESBURY — Drinking water wells for both private homes and the Shutesbury Public Library are not being impacted by petroleum contamination from an underground storage tank removed more than 30 years ago from 66 Leverett Road, according to a new report provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Travis Williamson, an environmental engineer with the Columbus, Ohio-based Tidewater, which is contracted with the federal agency to do the site evaluation, told the Select Board at its April 14 meeting that the review, done in 2025, shows no negative impacts to potable water.
The nearest public and private wells are more than 600 feet away from where the tank was located, Williamson said, and there were only minimal petroleum constituents found in three of the 16 test wells closest to that site, or within 45 feet. There was no petroleum constituents found at the 300- to 600-foot depths for drinking water wells.
The testing is being required by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, which in 2021 issued a release tracking number for the tank removed in September 1994. This is part of the mandated comprehensive phased Massachusetts Contingency Plan cleanup process.
The evaluation has been handled by the Army Corps under the Formerly Used Defense Site program, as the so-called Lot O-32 is a 22-acre site which the town bought in 2004 and then used the front portion of to build the library that opened earlier this year.
The site is where a former Air Force terminal and very high frequency range facility was located. From 1962 to 1967, the site was leased for regional air navigation from Westover Air Reserve Base, and the underground storage tank provided the backup power.
The consultants have been focused mostly on where the concrete pad for the radar facility was installed in the 1960s and remains.
Williamson said there are no pathways from the former tank to drinking water. His company used high-resolution screening, soil borings, groundwater monitoring and vertical delineation to determine if there were still petroleum constituents.
“Overall there was not very much detected in soil, and the impacts were minimal,” Williamson said no poetroleum staining or odors.
Williamson said that during the 1994 tank removal, 100 tons of soil around it were excavated, with five to seven truckloads of soil removed from the site
Grace Carmichael, project engineer for the U.S. Army Coirps of Engineers, said the investigation was done last July and August.
With the results, Carmichael said one more well will be installed before another round of tests are done on the 16 wells.
The outcome of that, later this year, will determine if the Formerly Used Defense Site program will continue to be the primary monitoring at the location.
If there is no risk, the site may no longer be eligible for the program and would be closed out, she said.
At that time, Carmichael said it would be up to the state environmental officials whether there would be some continued monitoring.
