The leaky underground oil tank at the Hildreth Elementary School is gone, but at a much higher cost than was expected. According to School Superintendent Thomas Jefferson, the final bill will be slightly over $70,000.
The tank was taken out of service a year ago, when HES switched to heating with natural gas. State law then required the removal of the old tank.
Initially, the project was expected to cost about $15,000, with the town paying $7,500 and an equal amount to come from a grant. When bids came in on the removal, however, they averaged about $25,000. And the project was not eligible for the grant money. The jump from $25,000 to $70,000 resulted from the discovery of “pinhole” leaks in the tank, which had led to contamination of the surrounding soil.
The removal took place just days before school started. “It was a pretty stressful week,” Jefferson noted, “but all the work was finished before school opened.”
And the work on the tank did not interfere with the construction of the new playground wall at HES. The 300 gallons of usable oil that remained in the tank were pumped out and will be used at the Bromfield School.
Cushing, Jammallo & Wheeler—an environmental services company in Clinton—handled the project. According to Phil Wheeler of the firm, it was necessary to remove about 100 cubic yards of contaminated soil from the site. Asked where the soil was taken, he said it goes to a recycling center. The excavated area has been backfilled.
Wheeler stressed that tests showed no measurable contamination in the remaining soil. “There is no impact to the soil remaining on the site,” he said.
In discussing the condition of the tank overall, Wheeler said, “Metal corrodes and develops leaks at different rates, depending on soil conditions.” It would be pure speculation, he said, to say how close the tank might have been to a much larger leak.
Both Jefferson and School Committee Chairman Keith Cheveralls praised the work by Cushing, Jammallo, & Wheeler. Cheveralls also complimented Jefferson’s swift handling of the situation. “Tom’s handling was textbook,” he said. “It was touch and go there, with only eight days before the kids came into school.”
Jefferson and Cheveralls agreed that it was preferable to pay the higher-than-expected costs out of funds from this year’s budget than to spread the expense over several years. Cheveralls noted that this year’s surplus is “funded by one-time savings,” including some savings in personnel costs and additional federal money distributed through the state.
