Groton Inn Underground Tank Update

As a result of a Department of Environmental Protection assessment of the recently discovered underground storage tanks on the Groton Inn property, Nicholas Child, Section Chief, Bureau of Waste Cleanup, documented what "appears to be a release of petroleum discovered in soil below one of the tanks at levels requiring notification and cleanup under the Mass. DEP regulations (c.21E and the MCP).  

"Based on what I saw today, this appears to be a straight forward cleanup that should be fairly quick.  I issued a field Notice of Responsibility to Mr. George Pergantis representing Pergantis Realty Trust as current owner/operator of the property.  He has agreed to continue with Lagasse Trucking as the cleanup contractor and Tom Williamson as the Licensed Site Professional.  I verbally approved up to 100 cubic yards of contaminated soil removal.  I expect that this is significantly more than will be needed, but wanted to provide the most flexibility to get the cleanup going." 

The Notice of Responsibility is specific in its requirements: Hire an experienced spill cleanup contractor to abate/mitigate the materials; submit a completed Release Notification Form to Mass DEP within 60 days of the Notice; engage a Licensed Site Professional to complete the Resource Action Outcome statement; submit an IRA Plan or Completion Form or Response Action Statement to the DEP within 60 days of the date of the release notification - August 30; dispose of remediation waste as defined by the MCP location, and submit a bill of lading that it was removed, signed by the LSP.

Mass. DEP expects to be notified on or before September 4 that Pergantis Realty Trust intends to perform the actions.

MCP requires responsible parties to take the necessary response actions at the sites where there has been a release of oil or hazardous materials.

If Pergantis Realty Trust does not take the necessary response actions, or perform them in a timely manner, the Mass. DEP is authorized under Mass. General Laws to perform the work. There are penalties and sanctions if the work is done by the Mass. DEP including up to three times all response actions costs incurred by Mass. DEP.