Planet Aid offers deal to speed cleanup

Planet Aid - best known for its trademark yellow clothing collection boxes - has been renting the former Axton-Cross Co. property off Route 16 for its worldwide headquarters since 1999. The nonprofit organization, which bundles and resells used clothes to fund third-world humanitarian programs, is aiming to buy the property for $1, initiate a $1.2 million cleanup of the site, and expand its outdated warehouse to accommodate its growing operations.

"There's still severe contamination left there in the soil and water. That's the bad news," said Brian Moran, managing partner of an environmental engineering and consulting company, Norfolk Ram Group in Milford, working for Planet Aid on the project. He has been involved in monitoring and cleaning the site since 1988. "The good news is that Planet Aid is interested in purchasing the property."

From 1967 until 1991, Axton-Cross ran its chemical distribution center on the site, an operation that resulted in documented, as well as suspected but undocumented, chemical spills, according to a federal Environmental Protection Agency report that Holliston commissioned.

The nearly 9-acre property is considered a brownfield site, or a former industrial property where the presence of past contaminants limits its future uses.

Documented chemical releases at the site included 670 gallons of methylene chloride and 2,500 gallons of xylene, liquids often used as solvents. In addition, "the potential for additional undocumented releases is considered likely," the EPA stated in the report, issued last February.

"This site has quite a long environmental legacy," said Moran. He said that some of the discharges include known carcinogens, though no health dangers have been found in the water supply or on neighboring properties.

The EPA said Axton-Cross was responsible for the contamination, and the firm was instrumental in monitoring the site and began a cleanup. But the company ran out of money, declared bankruptcy in the early 1990s, and stopped funding the cleanup once the town aggressively pursued back taxes, according to a lawyer representing Axton-Cross, Michael Healy.

The company's former owner, Herman Galvin, has been dead for several years, and the corporation exists solely on paper in Delaware, said Healy. Galvin's family would like to see the site cleaned up, he said, and is committed to transferring the property to Planet Aid.

But before that can happen, the property's title - clouded by years of back taxes, and mortgages that reportedly have been paid but not discharged - must be cleared.

Since 1996, Axton-Cross has racked up $406,000 in property taxes and associated fees owed to Holliston, and the town would like much of that paid.

"We're not going to give it away for peanuts and we'd like to see $400,000, but we're willing to work with whoever buys" the property, said Mary Bousquet, the town's treasurer and tax collector.

She said that if Planet Aid declares its intention to move forward with the deal, Holliston would be open to a plan for the organization to pay off the back taxes in installments, and apply for a municipal brownfield abatement, or both.

In 2001, Town Meeting voted to adopt a state law that allows companies and organizations that take responsibility for cleaning brownfield sites to receive tax abatements.

If the abatement is less than $50,000, the Board of Selectmen can approve it. If the amount is greater, it must be approved by Town Meeting.

Town Administrator Paul Le Beau said no one has applied for the abatement before, and the negotiating process would be a first for both parties.

He said Holliston officials are supportive of Planet Aid's plans and are confident the organization's officials have been "doing their due diligence."

Several years ago, when the town realized it wasn't going to get any money from Axton-Cross, it started foreclosure proceedings on the property. Though the town could pursue acquiring ownership of the property, said Bousquet, it would end up being responsible for orchestrating an expensive environmental cleanup funded by taxpayers.

"We'd have to act as a landlord, which would be a big liability," said Bousquet.

Thomas Meehan, Planet Aid's chief financial officer, said the organization looks forward to negotiating with the town and plans to cover some of the back taxes, as well as apply for the brownfield abatement. But he said he's worried Planet Aid's application for an EPA cleanup grant may be derailed if Axton-Cross does not have its title cleared soon.

"If we are not the owner by June, we'll fail in our qualification for a grant," said Meehan. "It would go to someone else."

Healy, the company's lawyer, said the remaining title issues are two mortgages that have been paid by Axton-Cross but were never recorded as discharged at the Registry of Deeds. Though he said he doesn't know when the issue will be resolved, he is confident it will not impede the property's transfer to Planet Aid.

The EPA brownfields grant would give Planet Aid $200,000 to restart the cleanup that was initiated by Axton-Cross, with the option to renew in subsequent years. Meehan expects to learn the outcome of the grant application in April.

Restoring the property won't be easy, cheap, or short, Moran said. He estimates the total cost will reach $1.2 million, with the process taking "at least a decade."

"It took a long time to pollute it and it's going to take a long time to clean up," he said.

Many of Planet Aid's plans ride on acquiring ownership of the site, officials said.

It wants to renovate its 25,000-square-foot warehouse and update its utilities to harness solar power and the geothermal heat emitted from the contaminant-cleanup processes. The new facility would also allow Planet Aid to expand its programs.

Planet Aid collects used clothing and shoes in 19 states, using more than 7,000 boxes. Donated items are sold to support education, community development, and HIV/AIDS programs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.