The Buffalo News tells MHProNews that faced with a state demand for remediation of arsenic in the soil, the owners, Ogden Holding Company, have decided to close the community and sell the property to the FMC Corp. The residents of the 21 occupied homes in the Old Mill Mobile Home Park will have to move out when their leases are up.
The park, built on the site of what was a mill pond until about 100 years ago, lies north of the Erie Canal near a creek tributary that flows from south to north through areas of Middleport where significant levels of arsenic have been found in the soil. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) believes prevailing winds deposited arsenic from FMC’s agricultural chemical production on this site. Since 1904, there has been farm chemical production in Middleport under the tenure of the former Niagara Sprayer Co., which FMC bought in 1943.
Marc S. Brown, attorney for Ogden Holding, the Spencerport-based owner of the 8-acre community, said some tenants have month-to-month leases and are allowed by law to remain for no longer than six months. Others, who have one-year leases, could stay until December 31.
Shawn J. Tollin, FMC environmental remediation manager, said the company is offering relocation assistance, including reimbursement of moving expenses, as well as paying “fair market value” for the homes. He said that residents are signing up for individual one-on-one meetings with FMC representatives.
Tollin wouldn’t discuss the amount of the payments. “It will depend on how each individual’s circumstances fit into the plan as it’s designed,” he said.
Ogden Attorney Brown said community residents were informed last fall about the remediation plans sought by the DEC and learned of their ouster at a meeting Tuesday night in the Middleport Fire Company hall.
Brown said the company had decided that any plan to excavate soil in the manufactured home community to remove arsenic would require the residents to leave at least temporarily because the work would undermine the concrete slabs supporting the manufactured homes. “That relocation could take years,” he explained. “It was in the best interests of my clients and the residents for the community to close.” He said fewer than half of the available homes are occupied.
FMC Representative Tollin said, “There’s a question if you could even put the manufactured home community back at the end of the day, given that it’s located in a flood plain from the tributary.”
FMC has sued the DEC over the remedial plan for the area, as the company asserts its preferred plan would be less expensive and just as effective as the state’s choice. FMC is required to pay for the cleanup of the arsenic, which has been going on in Middleport off and on for nearly 20 years. The question is how to reach the “background level” of 20 parts per million of arsenic that naturally occurs in soils in the area. FMC prefers excavating enough soil on any given property to bring the site average below 20 parts per million. The DEC’s plan is to remove all soil that has more than 20 parts per million, regardless of depth. ##
(Photo Credit: MH Village)
Article submitted by Sandra Lane to – Daily Business News – MHProNews.
