EPA-funded $4 million cleanup plan proposed for Caribou Power steam plant, engineers say

City planning board members heard detailed plans for an EPA Brownfields-funded cleanup of the Caribou Power steam plant during a public hearing opened at 6:07 p.m. by the board chair. Aaron Martin of CV (CVM) & Mahar Engineers, the city’s contracted qualified environmental professional firm, told the board the project has a $4 million cleanup grant and that the team prepared an analysis of cleanup alternatives and a conceptual remedial action plan to guide contractor bid specifications.

Martin said the grant is a four-year award made available in October 2025, with an overall project completion goal of September 2029, but the team hopes to begin major work as soon as late spring or early summer and to complete substantial onsite cleanup within a year or two. "These are big grants for mega sites — $4 million is the maximum EPA has been awarding for projects of this scale in recent years," Martin said.

The required analysis evaluates three options: no action (the site remains fenced and unchanged), preservation with interior abatement (an estimated roughly $8 million option to keep the building shell while removing asbestos and other hazards), and full demolition with removal of asbestos and hazardous materials (an estimated $5.5 million option that the city prefers). Martin told the board the preservation option was estimated to be the most expensive, while demolition plus full cleanup was less in the conceptual tables but could leave off-site features — such as fuel piping beneath the road and under tracks or tanks on adjacent property — unresolved unless the city secures agreements with those property owners.

Nick Sabatine of CV (CVM) & Mahar Engineers described procurement and waste-handling requirements: federal procurement rules will govern solicitation because the work is EPA-funded; contractors often form teams combining abatement, demolition and specialized waste-removal firms; and hazardous materials (friable and non-friable asbestos, oils, and possible PCB-containing wastes) must be segregated and disposed of at licensed facilities. Sabatine said friable asbestos typically must go to specially permitted landfills (he cited a Crossroads facility in Norwalk), non-friable materials can go to facilities such as Juniper Ridge, and PCB wastes require specially permitted disposal.

On contamination, the team said prior EPA-funded investigations did not identify contaminated soil or groundwater that requires excavation; only low-level detections were reported that did not meet cleanup triggers. Sabatine cautioned that some petroleum piping and tanks on neighboring properties (including the Merlin One tanks) fall outside the assumed cleanup boundary and would require separate owner agreements to include in the scope.

The project team said salvage value for steel and other metals will be explored as a cost-offset; engineers and contractors expect three to five bidders or teams for a project of this kind and will both publicize the procurement widely and notify contractors the team has worked with. Martin said the public comment period runs 30 days and ends April 3, after which the team will finalize bid specifications and begin advertising for contractors.

Jim Burn, the EPA project officer on the call, thanked city staff and said EPA supports turning contaminated sites into parks or redevelopment opportunities: "What we do is take care of these contaminated sites and turn them into parks or economic development," Burn said.

Next steps: the planning board record will show the project’s analysis document is available in the meeting packet and via staff; written public comments are due by April 3 and staff will forward questions to the project team. After the comment period the team will issue detailed engineering specifications to bidders and pursue competitive contractor selection.