One thing leads to another.

The city was going to buy the Robert Shaw site on Hill Street until, lo and behold, it turned out to be contaminated with Trichloroethylene (TCE), a metal parts cleaner known to be a carcinogen. The remediation of the contamination created a chemical spill of potassium permanganate in a marsh near Mayflower Place, three quarters of a mile from the Robert Shaw site. Feeling the pressure of public scrutiny in an election year, Mayor Richetelli agreed to convene a meeting of the Public Safety and Health Committee (Chaired be 3rd District Alderman Joseph Garbus - R), which had not met for two years. Richetelli forced the city agencies and the DEP to explain their activities, when clearly only one individual in the chain of command had to explain their actions or lack of actions – the Mayor.

Are these a series of unconnected events that "just happened"? Not really, environmentalists in the city have long known that the Robert Shaw Controls site in Milford is only one of thirteen (13) Superfund sites in the city. Some of these sites belonged to companies that are now long out of business.

"Superfund" is the commonly-used name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Contamination and Liability Act (the "Superfund" law). The Environmental Protection Agency was empowered to accept reports of toxic spills and pollution, and created the Comprehensive Environmental Response in 1984, Contamination and Liability Information System (CERCLIS) database.

The EPA now maintains these lists in up-to-date, searchable, form at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites and you can download the complete databases at http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/phonefax/products.htm. In addition, the EPA main search engine can often find site information if you just type the name of the company in the search box.

The Superfund Sites in Milford are:

For a Map of Sites click here.

So, you decide . . . Is this an Isolated incident that will never happen again, or a continuing story of neglect, non-disclosure, and contempt for public health and safety?