By RICK GUINNESS
Herald staff

NEW BRITAIN — The Willow Street Park project has more contamination below the surface than environmental experts had predicted. It sits in immense mountains just off the side of what will be the Willow Street park neighborhood children have been waiting for.

Officials say that LTC Construction and CMG Environmental discovered gasoline below the remnants of what was once the Willow Street public housing project.

Although no exact number has been given, the discovery will mean an added cost to the project, which started out as a $2.6 million bonding project in June of 2007 and grew to well over $4 million.

Municipal Development Director Ken Malinowski, said the cleanup costs will be covered by the state environmental protection department’s Underground Storage Tank Cleanup fund.

The additional pollution was discussed at the Commission on Community and Neighborhood Development’s meeting Thursday.

Meanwhile, a group of women from the North-Oak Neighborhood Revitalization Zone have expressed concerns about the safety of the site and its security.

“People should be concerned because not only are there new Habitat for Humanity owners who put their sweat and money into buying those houses and kids who go to the HRA community center,” said Rich Marzi, president of the group. “with Smalley School nearby, children are walking back and forth.”

Marzi added that he has a personal stake in the issue, saying, “I live only 100 yards away.”

The site now has fences and barricades around it to keep children out, which were installed after the removal of contaminated soil began in September.

Teenagers in the area said they saw the size of the hole created by excavation of the contaminated soil, which to them looked “50 feet deep.”

During an inspection of the excavation process last month, the bottom of the hole appeared to be at least 20 feet below grade. But the entire site slopes downward from the existing Habitat for Humanity Houses on Oak Street and the North Oak Community Center toward Willow Street on the North Street side.

Marzi said, “I am glad Ken Malinowski was forthcoming with the CCND on the remediation information. Now I can go report back to the NRZ.”

Malinowski confirmed Tuesday that the gasoline, which was once stored in underground storage tanks that were stored in concrete vaults, had moved north.

“We are working closely with the state DEP and Health Department,” Malinowski said. “They recommended we look at the UST fund.”

Malinowski explained in laymen’s terms the recent history of the project as follows.

He said the property had been excavated in 1999, before HUD handed it over to the city (around 2002).

The park project has been nearly 10 years in the making and will include athletic fields.

Excavation did not begin until late 2007, but came to a stop when pollution was discovered by the contractor, Leo Camosci, who immediately halted work when he realized the Department of Environmental Protection had to be notified.

The city was not entirely forthcoming until after the NRZ had discussed the matter publicly and citizens became curious about the monitoring wells.

Gasoline is fairly slow moving and will not run uphill, Malinowski said, assuring that existing homes are safe.

But Habitat homes slated to be built on the corner of Willow and Putnam streets will have to wait three years, now that contamination has been confirmed.

“We are cleaning the site to residential standards,” he said, even though most of it is to be used as a park.

Now that the giant crater has been backfilled with pristine fill, the cleanup phase is nearly complete.

“It’s a minimal amount of work,” he said. “We found more [gasoline] than expected.

He said the gasoline predates the Housing and Urban Development project that was built in the early 1970s, adding, “This was in the days of urban renewal which was prior to a lot of environmental laws,” Malinowski said.

“The state is going to pay for all of it,” Mayor Timothy Stewart said. “They are going to cover us for any and all costs. That is a good thing.”

In any contaminated site, Stewart said, “there are a lot of unknowns,” especially in an industrial city like New Britain.

“We are lucky we have [CMG environment],” Stewart said.

Stewart said that prior to the construction of the Willow Street Housing project in the 1970s, much of the ground was regraded. At one time there was a junk yard and other operations that caused pollution.

He said what illustrates the dramatic difference in the slope of the site is a topography map of the site which has a high point of more than 300 feet above sea level and drops by 100 feet to the grade level at Willow Street.

“Just imagine what they took out of it,” he said of prior excavation, long before the current operation.

The mayor estimated that the additional cost would be “several hundred thousand in reimbursement” above the $4.4 million price tag the council recently approved.

“We are lucky we sat down with DEP,” Stewart said, “so that we can continue with the project.”

Although teenagers were asking “when is the park going to open,” Tuesday night on Willow Street, Stewart, when asked that question late Tuesday night, would not venture a guess.

“We want to make sure,” that the pollution is cleaned up, he said, adding that he did not think it would be over $4 million.

“We are not going to end up spending that much,” Stewart predicted. “It is a bond that was overstated.”