NORWALK : Pipeline Firm Joins Fuel Depot Cleanup
A pipeline company is joining an ongoing cleanup of tainted soil and ground water at a military fuel depot at Norwalk Boulevard and Excelsior Drive, officials said.
Santa Fe Pacific Pipeline Partners, which operates a pipeline at the storage yard, plans to start extracting diesel and jet fuel from the depot’s south side by the end of the month. The Defense Department, the yard’s owner, started cleanup work at the tank farm three years ago.
The pipeline company will spend about $1 million removing an estimated 250,000 gallons of fuel, spokesman Pat Avery said. The work is expected to take two to three years.
Avery said the contamination was probably caused several years ago by valve and equipment leaks. In the past, fuel-handling practices were not as strict as they are now, he said. Santa Fe began operating the pipeline in the 1950s.
The company will also remove contaminated ground water beneath one home and two apartment complexes on nearby Cheshire Street.
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