BELFAST — Environmental cleanup and demolition activities have been planned and scheduled for the City of Belfast’s former Public Works facility located at 115 Congress Street.

Demolition activities are expected to begin Tuesday, June 9.

These activities are being conducted at the request of the City of Belfast, per a memo shared by the city.

They are being done in order to prepare this site for future redevelopment, and these activities are being paid for by funds from the City of Belfast and from the Maine Petroleum Groundwater Insurance Fund.

The hours when work will be occurring onsite will be limited to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, and the final completion date is expected around the end of July 2020. 

Environmental cleanup activities will be conducted by the firm Environmental Projects, Inc., and abatement and demolition activities will be conducted by the firm EnviroVantage.

Environmental cleanup activities will include the removal and proper offsite disposal of tanks, drums, and containers of used petroleum products. Environmental cleanup activities will also include the excavation and proper offsite disposal of petroleum-impacted soils. Prior to building demolition, hazardous building material abatement activities will be conducted, including the proper abatement and removal of asbestos-containing building materials and universal wastes, such as fluorescent light bulbs and ballasts.

At times, these activities will generate noise (particularly the demolition activities and the trucking offsite of the resultant debris) and dust (dust will be kept from traveling offsite through consistent mechanical application of water).

During the project, reasonable measures will be put in place onsite in order to prevent access to the more dangerous areas of the site and potential injury. All of these activities will be completed in accordance with Maine Department of Environmental Protection (MEDEP) oversight/guidance and with MEDEP-approved cleanup plans.

Ransom Consulting, LLC (Ransom) has been contracted by the City of Belfast to manage this project on its behalf, and will be conducting periodic inspections to document the environmental cleanup and demolition work performed by the abovementioned contractors.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding this project, we encourage you to contact Ransom’s Project Manager, Aaron Martin, at (207) 712-6180 (during the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday), at amartin@ransomenv.com, or at Ransom Consulting, LLC, Attn: Aaron Martin, 400 Commercial Street, Suite 404, Portland, Maine 04101.

Additionally, the City of Belfast encourages interested residents to go to the City’s website at www.cityofbelfast.org/115congress, which will be the repository for current information regarding this project.