By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET — The state Department of Environmental Management has confirmed that a quantity of No. 6 fuel oil was found inside an old sewer line on the Union Wadding Lofts property at 125 Goff Ave.

Jill Eastman, Oil and Hazardous Materials Specialist I for DEM, said that the investigation would continue until the source of the contamination is found.
“The next step would be to either pull the pipe out or clean it up,” she said.
Eastman said that two underground storage tanks that held number six heating oil for the mill’s boiler had been pulled out, cleaned and closed over a year ago.
As such, it is not known how or why the heavy, tar-like fuel oil ended up in the sewer pipe. “We’re not sure of the origination point. That’s still under investigation,” she said.
Eastman added that, at this point, it appears that the removal and clean-up process would be the responsibility of the owners of the property, since the section of pipe containing the oil was found on the Union Wadding site.
See OIL, Page A-2
A contractor who had been digging a trench on the property said the oil was discovered after workers accidentally broke open the old sewer pipe. He claimed that the property manager and owner of the property were notified about the oil, but had failed to notify DEM. The contractor said that shortly after speaking to the owner again about the matter, he was fired from the job.
Garfield Spencer, one of the owners of the Union Wadding Lofts, said Wednesday 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.
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. Under the first phase, 89 units, ranging from studio to 3-bedroom units, are available for sale at prices starting at $99,000.