This website was developed as:
ABBREVIATED HISTORY OF THE CGA SITE
A seventeen-acre property, known as the CGA (Country Gates Art) site, formerly home to a facility that stripped copper from circuit boards in vats of sulphuric acid, has remained in its contaminated state for over twenty years. The property was acquired by the Town of Sanford on February 2, 2010, as a result of a tax foreclosure. The site is littered with approximately 4,000 tons of shredded circuit boards, an abandoned building, and a 5,000 gallon underground storage tank, around which petroleum has been detected in groundwater and soil samples. A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) funded Phase II study in 2007, conducted by Weston & Sampson Engineers, revealed high levels of copper in surface soil, groundwater, and surface water.
The site is within 1,000 feet of the Town’s drinking water source, the New Dam Road Municipal Well. If the water table becomes contaminated, the Town of 26,000 residents may be at risk. The New Dam Road well was closed in Fall 2010 due to a contaminated water source. This information has not yet hit the press, yet.
With the current state of the economy, the Town of Sanford does not have the financial resources to clean the CGA site, however, the Town Council has indicated an interest in potentially providing matching grant funds if a Foundation were able to contribute to the clean-up.
On March 8, 2010, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Commissioner, Mr. H. Curtis Spalding, and EPA Region 1 Brownfields Program Director, Mr. Frank Gardner, visited the site with Congresswoman Chellie Pingree and all pledged their personal support to fund cleanup effforts. A Federal grant in the amount of $200,000 is available for Brownfields soils remediation. In its current state, according to the US EPA, the site does not qualify for Brownsfield funding until after the circuit boards, abandoned building, and other surface “special waste” have been removed. After US EPA funding, the clean-up is estimated at $738,862.50.
In October 2010, the Sanford Town Council approved the expenditure of $25,700 to remove the underground storage tank, mobile home, and removal of debris. In May 2011, the mobile home was removed, and the underground storage tanks were removed in August 26, 2011 by Enpro Environmental Services.
In November 2011, the Town of Sanford submitted an application for a Federal Grant to the U.S. EPA in the amount of $200,000.
For more information contact Dave Bernier, Project Advocate & Community Contact, at 207-651-0221, or email info@CleanCGA.com.