A grant request for the cleanup of several parcels near Wiscasset’s Mason Station plant was caught up in a temporary grant freeze at the Environmental Protection Agency. On Jan. 23, the new administration issued a freeze on all grants and ordered that no member of the agency could release press releases or email or respond to requests for information.

The freeze was lifted at the end of January. According to Ben Averill, town planner, Wiscasset had already applied for three cleanup grants, each to cover two parcels, in mid-December. He had already received information that the application had been received before the freeze took effect. The grant requests included one for $198,000, and two grants for $240,000 each. If the grants are awarded, the town will have to come up with a match of 20 percent, but that can include in-kind contributions such as administrative assistance and the cost of office supplies and equipment, Averill said.

According to Emily Bender at the EPA’s New England Division, the grant will be decided in the spring, likely April or May.

The goal of the cleanup of the six parcels near the plant is to bring the parcels up to standards for commercial use, Averill said.

The findings of the 2016 Phase II report included contamination of soils, water and vapor. The worst conditions were located at North Point lots, on the waterfront, nearest the plant. Based on the results, accessible and potentially accessible soils at the North Point lots also contained polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), extractable petroleum hydrocarbon (EPH) fractions, metals, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). None of these  were detected in accessible soils at concentrations that exceeded their Maine Department of Environmental Protection remediation guidelines, with the exception of  benzo(a)pyrene and arsenic, which occurs naturally in Maine soils, and at similar concentrations.

Two of the lots also contained asbestos fibers, although no obvious evidence of asbestos building materials had been observed during the excavation process when samples were taken. According to the report, this may risk people’s exposure unless measures are taken to limit the exposure. 

Other metals were detected in these lots and throughout all the sites tested, including barium, chromium, lead, mercury and silver, but it was believed these could be mitigated, according to the report.

Hydrocarbons and volatile organic compounds were detected at high levels near the site of an old oil tank as well as the North Point lots, and will have to be cleaned up or may pose a risk to indoor air quality in buildings at the site, and water samples also showed evidence of volatile organic compounds, hydrocarbons and dissolved metals, specifically arsenic, barium and chromium, but they are not thought to pose a threat to saltwater estuary life in the Back River. It is believed these compounds and elements migrated from the coal ash ponds, but have not reached the river.

Ransom Engineering’s cleanup plan for the parcels includes imposing a deed restriction so that the soils and groundwater could not be disturbed, using the existing mitigation plan to remove contaminants in accessible soils, closing, dewatering, and removing sediments in the ash ponds, capping the asbestos fill area north of the power station, adding vapor barriers near the site of the oil tank, and removing other hazards from inside buildings, such as mercury-based fluorescent lamps and switches, and asbestos, that may still exist in the maintenance building and other buildings the town now owns.

The town also foreclosed on several other lots near Mason Station on Dec. 29, none of which have yet been assessed.  Mason Station LLC still owns the plant, which, according to the Phase I assessment, has multiple environmental hazards including asbestos, possible mercury contamination, and volatile organic compounds. Because the building is not owned by the town, Wiscasset does not have standing to begin a clean up assessment of the plant.