Oil leak could cost town $1m

Put together the unfortunate sequence of an old pipe, a catch basin, and a steep hill, and Westford might be facing an unexpected $1 million tax increase this year.

Since school officials discovered just after Christmas that heating oil had leaked from a pipe at Abbot School, the town has racked up cleanup costs of over a half-million dollars. And with an unknown amount of fuel oil still in the soil next to the school, the bill is sure to escalate.

''It's an expensive nuisance," said Denis D'Amore, an engineering consultant hired by the town to resolve the matter.

Selectmen discussed possible responses during their last two meetings, but have not reached a decision. Among the options are a $1 million short-term tax increase to be voted on at the annual Town Meeting in May, spending cuts, or drawing from the town's reserves.

The saga began at 7:30 a.m. Dec. 27, during winter break, when a school custodian noticed oil leaking from behind the 1955 building. An underground metal pipe leading to the boiler system from the oil tank had given way. According to environmental engineers, about 1,000 gallons of oil escaped, and about 65 gallons flowed into a wetlands area behind the school. They estimate that 2,000 gallons remained inside the oil tank, which had a storage capacity of 10,000 gallons, said D'Amore.

The oil oozed its way to a catch basin outside the school's boiler room. Rocks, plants, and soil were covered with oil, and it took five painstaking days for cleanup crews to remove the oil by hand.

The contamination didn't stop there. The catch basin has a drain pipe that runs down a steep hill and creates a temporary stream whenever the basin overflows. At the bottom of the hill is a wooded area, abutted by several homes that front Providence Road.

For officials on Dec. 27, ''our first reaction was 'how do we ensure the safety of the kids?' " said Superintendent Stephen Foster.

The next thought was to comply with state Department of Environmental Protection regulations that, according to department spokesman Edmund Coletta, require fuel-oil leaks of 10 gallons or more to be reported, and for property owners to hire a consultant to clean up the spill.

''Fuel oil puts petroleum hydrocarbons into the water, and hydrocarbons are potentially cancer-causing and have potentially other health issues," Coletta said. ''If there are hydrocarbons that are potentially leaking into drinking water, that's a serious issue."

The abutting residential neighbors all draw their drinking water from private wells.

School officials called the Fire Department and the state environmental agency, then contracted an environmental cleanup service to plug the leak and protect the surroundings. Representatives of Newburyport-based Enpro Services Inc. were on site by 10 a.m. that day, said D'Amore.

For services rendered through the end of January, the bill from Enpro is $541,154.58. But the work is far from done. D'Amore, who has been hired to monitor Enpro and document that the cleanup meets state regulations, will bill the town for his services at $100 per hour. He estimates it will take a few months to complete the cleanup.

D'Amore said he believes that most of the oil is trapped between two foundation walls. A large crater behind the school marks the location of the old tank that has since been disposed. The broken pipe remains submerged under a foundation wall, making it difficult to determine whether it corroded or cracked.

Another area of concern is the possible contamination of properties at 31, 33, and 35 Providence Road.

The temporary stream from the catch basin ''wanders between the . . . properties and flows to a brook on the north side of Providence Road," said D'Amore. ''No oil got that far, and it looks like it petered out at the base of the hill." Though laboratory tests showed minuscule levels of methyltertbutyl ether in the wells at two of the Providence Road properties, D'Amore said it probably did not come from the oil leak.

''In my opinion, I do not believe what we're seeing in these two wells is a result of this release," said D'Amore, who noted the wells are close to the road and could be affected by runoff mixed with gasoline.

That could be good news for the town, since its insurance policy wouldn't cover damage to these property.

''I'm extremely surprised to learn that the town has no coverage for damage to another property," said environmental attorney Lauren Stiller Rikleen, who is representing one of the Providence Road homeowners.

''In 20 years of practice, I've never seen a case where there was no coverage for off-site contamination."

In an e-mail, Town Manager Steve Ledoux confirmed that the insurance carrier is not covering the problem but said he has asked town counsel to review the policy.

Dini Healey Coffin, chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen, said, ''The minute they discovered this, the Fire Department was down in the woods. It was a very quick response. We brought in Enpro. We talked to the people on Providence Road. . . . My feeling is when all is said and done, they did everything they could have done, and I'll be surprised if there are any long-term effects from it."

Stiller Rikleen said her client, who wants to remain unidentified, asked the town not to release the flow from the temporary stream until she could have ''an expert evaluate the levels of the contamination and ensure the flow of water would be the same as it was before the problem."

D'Amore said he has been working with the client's environmental expert, and they are close to reaching an agreement.

In the meantime, cleanup work continues near Abbott School. Water from the catch basin is piped to a tank and treated with granular activated charcoal to filter out the oil, and then is pumped to two 20,000-gallon storage tanks. To prevent the storage tanks from overflowing, the treated water is transported to a catch basin on Depot Street.

''Once we clean up the source," D'Amore said, ''then there will be no more oil in the water and no more need to treat the water, and we can go back to life as we knew it."

Joyce Pellino Crane can be reached at crane@globe.com.