Energy firm to pay for R.I. “blue soil” cleanup

April 24, 2008 6:00 AM

PROVIDENCE — An energy company has agreed to pay residents of a polluted waterfront neighborhood in Tiverton and to clean up the massive contamination that made the soil under their homes blue, lawyers for the neighbors said Wednesday.

Attorneys Robert McConnell and Mark Roberts, who represent nearly 100 property owners, told The Associated Press they reached a tentative settlement with Southern Union Co. The terms were sealed so they would not discuss details, but they said the deal was contingent on several conditions.

Jonathan Gasthalter, a spokesman for Houston-based Southern Union, said the case had not been resolved. The company has denied wrongdoing.

Jury selection was to have begun Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Providence.

The settlement involves money to the property owners as well as a pledge to clean up the contaminated properties, lawyers said. Roberts said the neighbors had approved the settlement. Many residents contacted Wednesday said they had been advised by their attorneys not to comment.

The contamination was discovered in 2002 when a work crew digging a sewer line struck blue soil. An investigator with the state Department of Environmental Management who was called to the scene said he found a pile of blue soil and smelled cyanide.

Tests showed the ground was contaminated with arsenic, cyanide, lead and other toxins.

Residents say the contamination has essentially left them trapped in their homes, unable to sell their properties or get home-equity loans. People who live in the neighborhood can't dig in their yards and were advised to vacuum their homes each day to keep down exposure to the soil. Some have put tiles over their land to protect children.

"It's certainly long overdue in coming. The residents of that area have struggled under conditions that were absolutely horrific," said state Rep. John Loughlin, who represents Tiverton in the General Assembly.

Gov. Don Carcieri and state environmental regulators had not seen the settlement and could not comment on it, Carcieri spokesman Jeff Neal said. But he called the clean-up agreement "a positive step forward."

An investigation by the DEM concluded the pollutants were byproducts created when the Fall River Gas Co. — now owned by Southern Union — converted coal into gas. A former company employee has said the company was dumping the industrial waste in the Tiverton neighborhood as late as the early 1970s.

The DEM has found Southern Union responsible for contaminating the land, but the company has appealed the decision.

About 100 properties are believed to be contaminated. In 2006, state environmental officials said the extent of the pollution remains unknown, and it is unclear how much it might cost to clean up the land.