No change to cleanup plan at former scrapyard

The state Department of Environmental Conservation will not change the action plan designed to contain contamination at the former B. Millens and Son Scrapyard on East Strand.

The decision keeps in place the plan to allow commercial uses in the future at the 1.7-acre site.

“The property will have an environmental easement that runs with the land in perpetuity unless extinguished,” the decision states.

The Department of Environmental Conservation, however, said the property can be used only for commercial purposes and that groundwater at the site cannot be used “without proper treatment.”

“Other responsibilities include providing the department access to the site, performing periodic inspections and certifying that the engineering and institutional controls remain in place and are effective, and that no changes ... have occurred which would result in the remedy no longer being effective,” the decision states.

The department said earlier this year that systems installed at the site over the past three years were enough to eliminate the potential for contact with people and prevent runoff from the site from reaching the adjacent Rondout Creek.

Previous investigations found the site’s owners improperly handled fluids from automobiles, transformers and capacitors.

The B. Millens Scrapyard is listed by the state Department of Environmental Conservation as a Class 2 Superfund site that presents a “significant threat” to the Rondout Creek. An investigation began in 1996 due to excessive levels of such toxins as PCBs, arsenic, barium, cadmium, lead and mercury, among other substances, the state has said.

The environmental department also said contaminated soil was removed from the site before a 2012-13 investigation was conducted.

“More than 2,800 tons of contaminated soil was excavated in late 2009 and early 2010 by the responsible party without state oversight ... prior to reme-

dial investigation activities in 2012 and 2013,” the department wrote. “During this remedial effort, some potentially contaminated water was discharged off site to a property east of

North Street also owned by the responsible party .... ”

The Millens operation moved to the town of Ulster in November 2012, but that facility closed in June 2016.