The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Town, riverfront property owners come to agreement
Oil pipeline issue held up negotiations
PORTLAND — Officials and the owner of a riverfront property the town is seeking to acquire have settled on a plan to locate, excavate and clean an oil pipeline.
The Board of Selectmen agreed to extend the deadline for resolution of the pipeline issue to Aug. 31. In exchange, the property owners, heirs of the former owner of Connecticut Tar & Asphalt, agree to remove up to 7,500 gallons of oil sitting in the pipeline and clean the interior.
The owners will cover the cost of the excavation and removal of the oil and subsequent cleaning, all of which is estimated at $20,700, First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield said in a telephone conversation Friday morning.
The estimate was developed by Korth Engineering of Marlborough, which has been hired by the estate of John Balletti.
The town, which will use ground-penetrating radar to locate the pipeline, a portion of which runs under Brownstone Avenue, is working with Amy Vaillancourt, a licensed environmental engineer.
The pipeline was shut down on April 30, 2010, Vaillancourt told the selectmen.
Bransfield said she signed the extension July 17.
The town has been working since 2016 to purchase the 5.27-acre property (which contains three individual parcels of land) and, officials hope, restore it to the tax rolls.
Among ideas discussed is the construction of a museum on a portion of the property detailing the town’s long history of quarrying brownstone. The land is across Brownstone Avenue from the quarry, now home to the popular Brownstone Exploration and Discovery Park.
Another idea bandied about is engaging with someone to open a riverfront restaurant on a portion of the land. However, since the town does not own the property, nothing has been decided.
Bransfield has said residents would have to first approve the purchase (at a cost of $385,000) and would then have a say in what would be done with the property.
Given that the pipeline runs beneath a portion of Brownstone Avenue, “It’s very important for the town to know its exact location,” Bransfield said.
During a meeting in her office last week, Bransfield said the board of selectmen members who were present — Deputy Fire Selectman Louis J. Pear and selectmen James K. Tripp, Edward J. “Rick” Sharr and Ralph Zampano — “said they desired to know exactly where the pipe is.”
Allowing the Chevron Oil Co. to run the pipeline beneath Brownstone Avenue “was done with the permission of the Board of Selectmen in 1981,” Bransfield said.
Drawings do show the presence of the pipeline, she said, but drawings are not always exact.
And given that the town often does work on the road, “As part of us doing our due diligence, we need to know where the pipe is. It’s something that should have been long ago,” she added.
Using GPR to pinpoint the exact location of the pipe, Bransfield estimated it will cost $1,500. The town and owners will split that cost.
“One way or the other, we need to know where the pipe is,” Bransfield said.
Reporter Jeff Mill covers East Hampton, Cromwell and Portland for the Middletown Press. Contact him at jeff.mill@hearstmediact.com.