WINDHAM – Soil samples taken at the former Keddy Mill in South Windham this week indicate widespread contamination of PCBs, a banned carcinogen that was once used in mills.

While chemical analysis won’t be complete for another month, initial tests conducted at the site this week show the presence of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) contamination is likely significant, which could pose further challenges for the long-delayed residential redevelopment of the site.

Jean Firth, brownfields coordinator for the Department of Environmental Protection, who is overseeing the testing, said a site cleanup could include complete removal of the contaminated soil or covering of the contaminated soils somewhere on site.

“But it’s too soon to tell what kind of remediation will need to occur,” she added. “Lots of these old mills have these PCB issues, (but) they’re usually not to this extent. This has got it to a fairly widespread area, at low levels.”

This week’s testing is not revelatory in its finding of PCBs. Scientists knew the soil was contaminated from previous rounds of tests. Scientists this week are performing additional tests to see how widespread that contamination is, and how far it extends from the complex.

Sampling

Overseeing this week’s sampling were Firth and John Cressey, project manager with Summit Environmental of Augusta.

Firth and a half-dozen scientists mapped out the site and dug two to four inches into the ground surrounding the mill building after having plotted 50-foot and 100-foot squares on an aerial map of the property. Using GPS units accurate to 30 centimeters, they are taking one sample per square, with more samples taken nearer the building.

The collectors than take the samples to Scott Clifford, a chemist with the federal Environmental Protection Agency who’s conducting soil analyses in a large mobile van parked on nearby Depot Street.

Firth said having the mobile van on site provides “real-time” surveying and speeds up the process. She said the contamination of PCBs isn’t a surprise since mills in Maine used PCBs prior to their ban. Based on soil surveys, however, she said the range of the PCBs contamination reaches far from the mill structure itself.

“We’re also trying to understand the mechanism for how it got where it is,” she said. “Was it tracked there during the operation or did it get dumped? It does help in the long run how you’re going to go about a remediation.”

Since PCBs have been found, the DEP has ordered the mill’s owner, Hudson Realty Capital, to erect a fence to keep out people and animals. According to Todd Coffin, who is a consultant for Hudson, Main Line Fence in Yarmouth will be erecting a fence possibly starting next week, contingent on the weather.

“We’ve got to figure out what’s there before anybody, including the owner Hudson Realty Capital, can make any solid plans. They need to know what’s there and what it’s going to cost before they can reclaim the land,” said Tom Bartell, Windham’s economic development director.

Future developments

Keddy Mill served at various times as a bustling textile mill and wood pulp mill with large electrical transformers that converted the Presumpscot River into usable electrical power. In October, 100 soil samples were extracted from the site by the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and were found to include PCBs, which can withstand high heat and were a prime component in transformer lubricating fluid, also known as dielectric fluid or cutting oil. PCBs were banned in the 1970s and are a known carcinogen.

The town of Windham received a $200,000 federal brownfield grant in 2009 and so far has conducted several soil sample studies around town with the money.

The Keddy Mill complex is owned by a private firm based in New York City, Hudson Realty Capital, which had planned to remove the mill building and install private residences on the acreage. Before commencing demolition of the decrepit mill structure in 2005, however, Hudson conducted environmental studies, found contamination inside the building and put a halt to the large residential project.

Since 2009, the town of Windham has used the Brownfield funding to fund exploration of the site since Hudson has not moved forward on remediation, citing the economic downturn. Not including this week’s work at the site, the town has spent about $10,000 of the $200,000 grant on the Keddy Mill studies, Bartell said.

“The Keddy Mill is a cornerstone property for redevelopment of South Windham, but we have obstacles, and we’re trying to figure out how big those obstacles are,” Bartell added.

Renee Lewis, who has overseen the project for Hudson, said a “conflux of factors,” including the collapse of the housing market, and general decline of the economy, made developing the industrial site into condominiums or single family homes “almost impossible at this time. Someday, there will be something there, but it will probably be a smaller development than originally planned,” she said.