SOUTH HADLEY — The property owners of a collapsed building at the corner of Carew and West Main streets have five years to clean up the hazardous materials in the soils and debris, a process estimated to cost $412,000.
The roof of the former auto mechanic building at 0 West Main caved in two years ago, creating an eyesore in the center of South Hadley Falls. The town placed a nearly $18,000 lien on the property at the time to secure the debris inside a fence and to remove a trailer of sheetrock. However, town officials had little power to enforce cleanup at the site until the estate of the former owner, Casimir Kazimierczak, had been settled, which has since occurred.
Recently, the new property owners allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to complete a brownfield assessment on the property. The EPA found asbestos, arsenic, lead, polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other toxic chemicals in the rubble and soil. The agency gave the owners 120 days to report these findings to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.
The responsibility to clean up the site falls to the new property owner, Planning and Conservation Director Anne Capra told the Select Board during an Aug. 11 meeting. She did not identify those owners. However, if they do not have the funding to do the work, the town may have to take on the cleanup if the property is to be redeveloped in a timely manner.
“You only have to look to other communities in the region to see collapsed mill buildings that have sat like that for decades,” Capra said.
The executor of Kazimierczak’s estate, Jan Mastej, could not be reached for comment.
The EPA report recommended the property owners maintain the fence, properly dispose of the material and place a 3-foot layer of clay, gravel and top soil on the small parcel. Development of the land into residential units would require more soil remediation, adding extra expenses.
“For me, I wouldn’t want to see the town get into any of that liability,” Select Board Chair Jeff Cyr said.
Capra said the property owners have demolition and excavation experience and believes they can clean up the site for less than the $412,000 price tag. Her estimate includes prevailing wage for some of the work, which private entities don’t have to follow.
On the other hand, the property owner does not have access to EPA grants for brownfield cleanup offered to nonprofits and municipalities. Capra said the Kazimierczak estate owners sold off other properties to pay off the lien, but it likely will not cover these new expenses.
“In order for the town to qualify for the EPA grant, we would have to own the property and take the risk before we could even apply,” Town Administrator Lisa Wong said. “That’s a very risky proposition. We don’t really have an identified funding source to even do that at this point in time.”
It is not uncommon for a public entity, like a town or redevelopment authority, to purchase a brownfield site and remove the hazards for the public good, then find a property developer interested in the parcel, Wong said. There is a $150,000 earmark in the state’s Economic Development Bond Bill to help redevelop the Falls, although Wong does not know how these funds will be allocated.
“I have had a number of people come into my office asking about the property,” Capra said. “People with some really creative visions. It’s so small, it’s just a postage stamp of a lot, but the zoning in place gives it great flexibility.”
Regardless, South Hadley is responsible for enforcing the cleanup along with the EPA and MassDEP.
“I feel bad for the abutters staring at that, and people driving by it,” Cyr said. “The eyesore is terrible.”
