Board gets update on industrial center air

The air in parts of the Watertown Center for Business and Industry has higher levels of the cancer-causing solvent trichloroethylene than recommended in the latest state Department of Health guidelines.

But the amounts are still well below the limit set by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The report on testing for soil vapor intrusion was presented to the board of the Watertown Industrial Center Local Development Corp. at its meeting Tuesday morning.

The center is on the land formerly occupied by New York Air Brake, which freely dumped TCE and other toxic chemicals on its campus as recently as the 1950s, state officials have said. Beginning in the late 1980s, the state began testing water and soil samples on and near the site to determine what pollution still exists.

The DOH and the state Department of Environmental Conservation began testing for TCE in several buildings around the Air Brake site in December 2007. Several buildings, including those that are now part of the WCBI complex, needed additional tests. SPX Corp., Charlotte, N.C., is the previous owner the state will hold responsible for any cleanup costs.

"It's not clear what, if anything, they require SPX to do at this point," said Thomas J. Fucillo, an environmental attorney with Menter, Rudin & Trivelpiece, Syracuse. "Based on a recent meeting with SPX, it will probably require venting, similar to what they do with radon."

DOH's recently released guidelines are meant for residential structures, where people, especially children, could have 24-hour exposure. DOH's guidelines call for a maximum of 5 micrograms per cubic meter.

"The possibility of health effects occurring is low even at air levels slightly above the guideline," according to DOH's Web site. "In addition, the guideline is based on the assumption that people are continuously exposed to TCE in air all day, every day for as long as a lifetime."

OSHA allows up to 573,000 micrograms to be in the air at work places, where adults are exposed for up to eight hours.

Results at the center ranged from 0 to 190 micrograms per cubic meter, site manager William J. Soluri said.

"It's an evolving area," Mr. Fucillo said. "It's unclear what DOH is going to do with our situation."

The testing included vinyl chloride as well and results were similarly low.

Mr. Soluri said tenants have been notified and received a full report of the results.

Board members also heard a preliminary report from the Council for International Trade, Technology, Education and Communication, Potsdam, on the Watertown business center's viability.

Executive Director Thomas A. Plastino said the creation of a capital reserve fund and raising rents are necessary. As part of the 2009-10 budget approved in May, as businesses renew their leases, they pay 35 cents per square foot per month to the fund and an additional $2.50 per square foot per month in base rent.

Between a roof for Building A and other needed capital improvements, Mr. Plastino said, WICLDC will need about $2 million over the next two or three years.

"There is no doubt in my mind right now that this facility does not have a future as a whole if you have to come up with your own capital costs," Mr. Plastino said.

But with half or three-quarters of the capital costs funded by grants, "I think you have a real self-sustaining future for this facility."