$1 Million To Fix

Orange Water;

By John Freitag

The major activity of the eighth year of Superfund clean-up at the Elizabeth Mine in Strafford will be a $1 million attempt to remove iron from water flowing from the mine.

Ironically, the high levels of iron in the West Branch of the Ompompanoosuc are present because of recent Superfund work at the mine site.

This past summer the river ran orange from the confluence with Copperas Brook to Union Village some four miles downstream where the West Branch merges with the East Branch. At a meeting this past Thursday in Thetford, EPA project manager Ed Hathaway outlined plans for an interim treatment system, estimated to cost around $1 million, that would mix limestone with the water coming from drains from the bottom of the largest tailing pile.

The iron in the water, whose content had spiked due to work on the site, would precipitate out before water was discharged into Copperas Brook. It is expected that the system will remove more than a ton of iron every few days. The annual cost of operating the system is estimated to be around $75,000.

It is expected that the system will be used to for the next four to five years while the first phase of the clean-up is completed. According to Scott Acone, the engineer for the project from the Army Corp of Engineers, while they are not sure exactly what caused the spike in iron, they are hopeful that once the water diversion and capping of the tailings are completed, the iron levels will go down and the need for the treatment system will end.

Omya Proposal

The second part of Thursday’s meeting discussed the possible use of waste byproduct from the Omya plant near Rutland.

Both Omya and the EPA are very interested in using the waste material in Strafford, believing it would solve problems for both of them.

Omya produces between 100,000 to 150,000 tons of waste each year and would like to find a productive use for it. EPA project manager Hathaway said the composition of the material is ideal for use in capping the tailings.

In addition, he said, it could be used in neutralizing some of the acidity at the site. Hathaway said that up to 700,000 yards of the Omya waste material might be used in Strafford.

Omya grinds and treats marble to make a product used in paper and paint. It proposed last year to bring 200 tons of the waste to Strafford as a pilot project to see if it could be used as capping material.

After the initial publicity last year, Omya’s proposal was put on hold to await the results of a legislatively- mandated study of the waste. At the same time, the state agreed that Omya material would not be used without community approval.

The study was completed early this year and found that the waste, as currently being stored in settling cells and old marble quarries, posed no threat to human health and the environment. However, the waste does contain a toxic chemical, aminoethyl-ethanolamine or AEEA, the study found.

Jim Hamilton, an Omya vice president, explained at the meeting that AEEA is water soluble and they are currently in the process of building a dewatering plant that should remove the AEEA from the waste. Hamilton said that all the material that would go to Strafford would be from the dewatering plant.

Varied Reaction

Reaction to his comments were varied. Neal Meglathery, the representative of the Thetford Selectboard, said, "I see no problem with it. Let's bring it here and play with it."

Pat Parenteau, director of the Environmental Law Center at the Vermont Law School, disagreed.

"People should proceed with caution when dealing with this company," he said. "Omya has a long history of denying problems with their waste product."

"Omya is not a company you can trust, and you cannot trust the state to regulate it," he said.

Omya's Hamilton took issue with Parenteau's characterization of his company. "Omya has changed," he said, citing their financing of the state-required study to the tune of $2.5 million. Hamilton admitted that Omya had made a mistake last year in Strafford in trying to bring the waste to the site, but he said they have learned from their mistake and are now committed to working with the community.

"Omya is now in compliance with all federal and state regulations," he said.

Another participant, Matt Levin of Vermonters for a Clean Environment, urged people to proceed with caution. Levin said that each site has its own chemical composition and that besides AEEA there have been concerns with the waste mobilizing arsenic.

He recommended that Omya hire Cambridge Environmental, the firm that did the recent study, to look at the safety of using the waste in Strafford. He emphasized the need for independent study to be followed by independent monitoring, if it is used, to ensure safety.

The meeting ended with a decision to continue the discussion both by email and in future meetings.