Hazardous Eyesore

By BETTY ADAMS
Staff Writer

Copyright © 2006 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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	Staff photo by Andy Molloy enlarge Environmental Protection Agency employee Tom Condon walks through the abandoned Augusta Tissue mill Tuesday in Augusta.
	Staff photo by Andy Molloy enlarge Federal contractor Lauren Cook prepares to inspect a storage tank on the grounds of the Augusta Tissue mill in Augusta last week. Cook's firm, Weston Solutions of Andover, Mass., is testing chemicals at the facility for the Environmental Protection Agency to determine which warrant cleanup. At right, EPA employee Tom Condon walks through the abandoned mill.

AUGUSTA -- The once-thriving paper mill on the Kennebec River in Augusta looks like a ghost plant.

Broken glass from thousands of small panes litters the ground. Weeds sprout healthily among cracks in the concrete walls and asphalt pavement.

Charred remains occupy one end of the series of warehouse-like buildings. At the other end, a waste-water treatment plant has ceased functioning.

The Augusta Tissue mill closed in August 2000. The owners have not paid the water bill, the sewer bill, the tax bill, the electricity bill or any other bill for so long the service providers have sued.

The property taxes are delinquent, and the city could step in at any time to claim the property.

But it hasn't yet because of hazardous materials that were once used at the plant and may still be there.

City Manager William Bridgeo worries about the prospect of leaving the plant in limbo.

"One of the city's long-term goals is remedying that eyesore," Bridgeo said. "It's something that needs to be done, but it's a daunting job."

Recently, the state sued to get the owners to take responsibility for cleaning up the site. The complaint in Superior Court charges the owners of Augusta Tissue LLC with violating state laws governing hazardous waste and materials, oil, water and air pollution.

The site has attracted vandals who have damaged items, spilled paint cans and stripped copper piping. Investigators determined that a fire at the plant in May had a suspicious origin.

"As this last fire demonstrated, you don't want to put public safety personnel at risk or expose the community at large to risk," Bridgeo said.

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency weighed in on the cleanup project by taking samples of chemicals and other materials at the plant.

Thomas C. Condon, on-site coordinator with the EPA's Office of Site Remediation & Restoration in Boston, helped direct seven people from Weston Solutions Inc., of Andover, Mass., a private contractor.

"We're looking at drums -- 230 gallon totes -- and also storage tanks and other structures that have been used for storage that we believe still have paper- making chemicals in them," Condon said.

But the results will not be available for a couple of weeks.

"Most samples are going to our lab, but some will go to a private lab," he said, each with varying report times.

Occasionally, the labels on the tanks -- sodium hypochlorite and ammonium hydroxide -- offer a good indicator of the contents.

Crews from the state Department of Environmental Protection went in weeks ago and removed chemicals from five small laboratories at the plant. The federal and state agencies are cooperating in the investigation.

The state also has sued the owners of Augusta Tissue LLC, formerly American Tissue, to get hazards removed and to recoup any clean-up costs incurred. No response to that lawsuit has been filed in Kennebec County Superior Court.

Condon said the plant owner is responsible for paying the bill.

John Gabayzadeh of Great Neck, N.Y., a managing member of Augusta Tissue, allowed the federal agency access to the site, Condon said.

Condon said he expected to find a lot of chemicals used in the paper-making process, including acids and caustic materials, as well as some flammable material.

He said the proximity of the Kennebec River also is a concern.

"We would be concerned about this in any setting," Condon said. "The river adds an additional natural resource that could be damaged."

"Everything I'm interested in looking at at this point is pretty much above ground," he said.

Initial assessments by the state Department of Environmental Protection have found nothing currently leaking into the river, according to Mike Hudson, a supervisor in the enforcement division.

The one-time Statler Tissue plant became Augusta Tissue in December 2004 when new owners worked out a payment plan for back taxes. The city, however, last received a check from the owners -- for $50,000 -- in June of 2005, according to Ralph St. Pierre, assistant city manager.

He estimated the city is owed $450,000 in back taxes and interest for the seven parcels of property, most of it between Maple Street and Riverside Drive.

The land had an assessed value of almost $1.75 million prior to the May 15 fire, which destroyed the main office building and portions of nearby buildings.

When former mill manager Bob Jackson first came to the plant in 1993, about 550 people worked there on three paper-making machines and a converter, which cut the big rolls of tissue paper down to consumer-product size.

Jackson said Thursday that two paper machines remain on site.

He has been to the plant only a few times since the fire. "It's bad," he said. "There's a lot of clean-up that needs to be done."

He said neither he nor environmental manager Richard McElhaney have been paid since mid-March. Jackson, however, said he still has limited contact through e-mail with Gabayzadeh.

Proposals to reopen the mill have been floated as recently as December 2004.

City Manager Bridgeo said he recently fielded a call from a group of Wall Street investors interested in restarting closed mills, but he remains doubtful.

"I've got to be skeptical at this point. I've walked from one end of the plant to the other and I can't imagine a cost-efficient way of starting that plant back up," he said.

Betty Adams -- 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com