The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Old oil a concern in land deal
PORTLAND — Town officials met Thursday with state regulators as they continue to pursue details about an abandoned pipeline that crosses under a parcel of land the town is proposing to buy.
The 1,800-foot-long pipe was part of an oil distribution system that fed the former Connecticut Tar & Asphalt Co. and other commercial enterprises that back up onto the Connecticut River off Brownstone Avenue. The town is proposing to buy the 5.27-acre property to redevelop it as part of an effort to reclaim a portion of the town’s riverfront.
First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield sat down with officials from the state Department of Economic and Community
Development and state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. DECD is providing a $750,000 grant to the town to clean up the property.
“I am encouraged by the information we have been receiving and by the assistance we are getting from the seller and from our neighbors on Brownstone Avenue,” Bransfield said following the meeting. She remains “confident we can get a workable and explainable solution to this issue.”
The issue of the pipe arose after the town signed a purchase-and-sale agreement with the estate of John Balletti, who had owned Connecticut Tar. A title search uncovered a number of issues, most of which are standard in any sale of commercial property.
One of those was the ownership of the pipeline, a portion of which runs under Brownstone Avenue and the CT&A property. The pipeline delivered oil (or “product,” in the parlance of the trade) to storage tanks on the property.
The tanks were emptied — or decommissioned — in 2010. Amy Vaillancourt, an environmental engineer working with the town on the project, hopes to be able to sell the tanks if the sale goes through.
Members of the Board of Selectmen want to have the pipe inspected to ensure there is no oil remaining in the pipe or that any left there hasn’t leaked out. Selectman James K. Tripp said companies sometime leave residual oil in a pipe to inhibit corrosion.
Once the title search uncovered the issue about the pipe, Bransfield said, “We asked the seller to look into it” and the owner “has been very responsible and helpful.”
The seller has 90 days from Jan. 26 — the date the purchase-and-sale agreement was signed — to satisfy the town on issues that were raised. If those can be resolved, the proposal to buy the land will go to a town meeting for residents to approve the purchase.