Funding to clean up contaminated Keddy Mill may be slashed

By Ed Pierce

With drastic budget reductions planned for many federal agencies, the status of available funding to complete the Environmental Protection Agency’s cleanup of the contaminated Keddy Mill in South Windham is up in the air.

With uncertain funding available from the federal government,
the EPA Superfund's plans to demolish and clean up the
contaminated Keddy Mill in South Windham may have to be 
put on hold. The project is estimated to cost $17 million.
PHOTO BY ED PIERCE 

The Keddy Mill site is located at 7 Depot St. in South Windham and includes a 6.93-acre abandoned mill complex property adjacent to the Presumpscot River. The mill building was constructed in the early 1900s although a sawmill existed there previously.

The sawmill closed in 1822, and the Keddy Mill property was then used as a grist and carding mill. In 1875, the Sebago Wood Board Company acquired the mill site and constructed a pulp mill complex, which included a three-story main mill building, machine room, drying rooms, and a wood preparing house. Between the late 1800s and 1922 additional process buildings/facilities were added, including storehouses, a second railroad siding, the finishing and shipping building, a water tank, machine room, and engine room. The mill was used for pulp and box-board manufacturing through the 1940s.

In 1945, the Keddy Mill shifted from manufacturing paper to steel products such as heavy equipment buckets. Scrap metal was transported by rail cars to the mill and melted into steel billets, which were then used to manufacture steel parts. By the 1960s and early 1970s, manufacturing included flanges and fire suppression materials. EPA officials say that it was during this period that significant disposal of hazardous substances, including harmful PCBs, may have occurred at the site. A large oil-based fire in 1969 damaged the mill complex and destroyed several blast furnaces and by 1974, a scrap recycler launched operations in the mill building.

The property was used as a machine shop and for equipment storage until 1997.

Since 2014, the Keddy Mill site has been included on the EPA’s National Priority List, also known as the Superfund, recognizing it as contaminated and hazardous to human health.

In 2023, after years of conducting environmental studies, the EPA Superfund adopted a cleanup and remediation plan based upon an EPA Remedial Investigation Report, human health and ecological risk assessments, the Feasibility Study, and comments received on EPA's Proposed Plan during a 30-day public comment period.

“EPA’s cleanup plan for the Keddy Mill Superfund Site is a strong effort to ensure the health and safety of community members, protecting them for generations to come,” said EPA New England Regional Administrator David W. Cash at the time. “Cleaning up Superfund sites helps us ensure that no community, no family, and no child has to face exposure to chemicals and other dangerous substances in their day-to-day lives.”

Consistent with Superfund agreements signed in 2022, the EPA has been developing plans for the implementation of various investigations which are necessary in advance of the mill's demolition. Data collection was completed in 2024 and the submittal of a PDI Report is anticipated by early April 2025. The results of these investigations will be evaluated and ultimately used to support the design of the demolition and removal activities.

Following approval of the design, the removal action will be implemented by the PRP and then EPA Superfund monies obtained for the work. That is, if adequate funding is made available.

EPA’s cleanup plan will take two to four years to design and execute and will take place after the significant completion of a Removal Action to demolish the mill complex and associated structures.

The cleanup plan includes the following components:

* Excavation and off-site disposal of contaminated soil and debris from the Mill Complex property.

* Targeted treatment of soil (within the footprint of the excavation) with amendments in support of groundwater cleanup.

* In place treatment of groundwater contaminants.

* Excavation and off-site disposal of contaminated sediments from the Presumpscot River.

* Treatment of water generated from soil and sediment dewatering and removed from excavations based on applicable water discharge standards, as required

* Restoration of the portions of the Presumpscot River altered by the remedial cleanup action.

* Land use restrictions to prevent exposure to site-related contaminants in groundwater and fish tissue until cleanup levels are met.

* Inspections and operation and maintenance.

* Monitoring of groundwater and fish tissue to evaluate the achievement of cleanup levels.

* Five-Year Reviews to assess the protectiveness of the remedy.

EPA estimates that the total cost of this portion of the Keddy Mill cleanup project, including construction, operation and maintenance, and long-term monitoring, will be about $17 million. The Superfund is the federal program that investigates and cleans up the most complex, uncontrolled, or abandoned hazardous waste sites in the country to protect people's health and the environment.

But finding necessary funding for the cleanup may prove to be a significant challenge. At least $19 billion in Environmental Protection Agency funding to thousands of state and local governments and nonprofits remained on hold through last Friday and permanent budget reductions to environmental remediation programs may mean that the Keddy Mill Superfund cleanup work could be indefinitely on hold. <