By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — The state Department of Environmental Management is investigating a report that a quantity of number six fuel oil was found inside of an old sewer line on the Union Wadding Lofts property at 125 Goff Ave.

Walter Lenartowicz, who owns Pawtucket Fence & Iron Works, said his work crew was digging a trench for a new water pipe and the oil was discovered after workers accidentally broke open an old sewer pipe on the sidewalk that leads to the property.
He said the pipe, which is about six inches thick and 24 inches round in diameter, is approximately 1,000 feet long, and he allegedly noticed the oil in the one section that had opened up.
Lenartowicz said he notified Union Wadding’s property manager last Thursday about the oil, and told her she should notify DEM, as required by state law. He said his company fixed the broken pipe, but the property manager stated that the oil found there was not her problem.
Lenartowicz said that when he arrived at the site on Tuesday morning, he also told one of the owners, Garfield Spencer, about the alleged oil and also told him he was required to contact DEM. He claimed that, instead, Spencer then told him to pick up a check for payment of work that was owed and fired him from the job.
Lenartowicz, who said he collected a bucketful of oil himself before repairing the pipe, contacted DEM on Tuesday morning. A representative and work crew from the DEM’s Office of Emergency response arrived and began digging immediately to uncover more of the pipe in order for testing to be conducted.
Garfield Spencer, one of the owners of the Union Wadding Lofts, told The Times that he had paid a contractor to remove an old fuel tank from the property about a year ago, and that DEM had signed off on the removal process. He maintained that if old oil residue was now being found inside a sewer pipe, it should have been part of the removal process that was done at the time.
See FUEL, Page A-2
Jill Eastman, Oil and Hazardous Materials Specialist I for DEM, said that the investigation would continue until the source of the alleged contamination is found. If the oil is found to be on the pipe section that is on the Union Wadding property, the owner would be responsible for the clean-up, she stated.
Eastman said, however, that unlike gasoline and other lighter types of fuel oil, the number 6 type is a heavy substance, almost like tar, that doesn’t easily move. “However, it still shouldn’t be there,” she noted.
The Union Wadding Lofts are part of a $25 million redevelopment project that turned the 320,000-square foot former mill space into condominium units. A ribbon-cutting was held earlier this year for the first phase of the project to introduce 89 units that are available for sale.