Lack of specific information causing
businesses concerns on cleanup’s future
By:Alec Moore
The Rustic Mall’s workers and business owners came to the municipal building last week to learn more about the federal government’s plans to clean up toxic creosote beneath the mall, but some complained afterward about the lack of specific information provided.
"There were a lot of unanswered questions," said Joanne Lovas, manager of the Rustic Mall Drug Fair. "They weren’t very specific about where the work was going to be done and when it was going to be done, so it was hard to get a good feeling about the whole thing."
Pat Seppi, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s community involvement coordinator, said the Oct. 11 public hearing focused more on the process EPA will follow in the cleanup effort.
"We explained to them how the process works but we couldn’t give them any specific dates," Ms. Seppi said, adding that no decisions will be made until all of the public comments have been taken into consideration.
Ms. Seppi also said many who were present were fearful of exposure to creosote at the mall, but she said that, unlike the Claremont cleanup which involved removing creosote contamination on the surface, the creosote contamination lies well beneath the ground where mall employees or shoppers will not be exposed to it.
Despite what Ms. Lovacs saw as a lack of concrete information, she said she will be less dismayed by the cleanup work at the mall if it results in a long overdue aesthetic improvement to the property, which she says is more of a deterrent to shoppers than the creosote is.
"The mall is pretty run down," she said. "There’s nothing to even show that there are businesses here. If it would mean some restoration, then it might be worth having to work around the creosote."
The EPA is expected to analyze the comments from the hearing and issue a "record of decision" by the end of the year, which will effectively outline the EPA’s plan for the mall’s cleanup.

