EPA New England celebrates major milestone at Somersworth Superfund Site

EPA New England celebrates major milestone at Somersworth Superfund Site

Groundbreaking for the construction of a solar farm on reclaimed land is a first of its kind for New Hampshire

August 12, 2024

SOMERSWORTH, NH (Aug. 12, 2024) - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined Congressman Chris Pappas and the City of Somersworth to celebrate the groundbreaking for construction of a new solar array at the site of the former Somersworth Sanitary Landfill. This is the first time in New Hampshire that a portion of a Superfund site has been redeveloped into a solar farm.

By having a portion of this site become a solar farm it upholds a key goal of the Superfund Program, to return Superfund sites to productive use. The Biden-Harris administration has set out to creating a cleaner and greener future for the country, with special consideration being taken for communities with environmental justice concerns.

The 2,577 kW-DC / 1,992 kW-AC solar PV project is expected to generate 3,523,443 kWh in Year 1 and more than 67 million kWh over the next 20 years. This renewable energy will positively impact hundreds of peoples in the Somersworth community.

"We applaud the site team for their diligent work to clean up this portion of the site - and recognize the transformative decision of the City of Somersworth to repair the harm and invest in the health of their community and environment," said EPA New England Chief of Staff Sanjay Seth. "We thank our state and federal partners for their resolve and dedication to help make this project happen."

"Making smart investments in our clean energy infrastructure is a critical step to ensuring we continue to lower costs for Granite Staters while putting our nation on the road to a more sustainable energy future," said U.S. Representative Chris Pappas. "I was glad to join federal, state, and local partners in Somersworth this afternoon to break ground on the future sight of this new solar array. By safely and responsibly repurposing a former landfill site, we are protecting the health and safety of our communities and environment while strengthening our clean energy infrastructure in the Seacoast. I remain committed to lowering the cost of energy and creating a clean energy future here in New Hampshire."

"Superfund sites, like the former Somersworth Sanitary Landfill, present unique challenges for Granite State communities and are often left vacant despite their high potential for redevelopment," said U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen. "I'm thrilled that with the help of federal funding from the Biden-Harris Administration, the City of Somersworth is breaking ground on a solar farm that will both repurpose their former landfill and also provide clean energy to the community."

"New Hampshire is continuing to modernize our infrastructure, including through building a new solar array at the former Somersworth Landfill," said U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan. "This new solar array will help our state build a clean energy future that will also help lower energy costs - and by finding a way to make use of this unoccupied land, is another example of New Hampshire's innovation and ingenuity."

"This Solar project is an important step towards increasing sustainability efforts in our Somersworth Community and aligns with other similar efforts in our Region and in our State," said City of Somersworth Mayor Matt Gerding. "It is important that we collectively welcome green energy as another element of our collective energy portfolio. On behalf of the City of Somersworth, I want to express our excitement for this long-awaited groundbreaking as it repurposes City-owned land that otherwise had very limited use. I want to express my appreciation and sincere thanks for all the hard work, effort, and collaboration put forth by our City Council and City staff with Ameresco in reaching this public-private partnership that resulted in bringing this important Solar project to fruition. I also want to acknowledge the assistance of our regulatory partners, staff from the US EPA and NH DES, in their steadfast participation and support in moving this project to reality."

EPA will continue to work with the City of Somersworth to monitor the site.

Information about the site and contact information if you have questions can be found at: www.epa.gov/superfund/somersworth.

Background

The Site is located on Blackwater Road, about 1 mile southwest of the center of the City of Somersworth in Strafford County, New Hampshire. The Site is the location of a former sanitary landfill that accepted municipal and industrial wastes from the mid-1930s to 1981. Waste-burning activities also occurred on-site until 1958. The 26-acre landfill is located north of Blackwater Road and drains west to Peters Marsh Brook and an adjacent wetland. Waste disposal activities at the landfill resulted in contamination of groundwater with volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including chlorinated ethenes.

After landfill activities ended at the Site in 1981, the City of Somersworth installed monitoring wells at the Site and identified VOC contamination in Site groundwater. As a result of the contamination, EPA added the Site to the Superfund program's National Priorities List (NPL) in 1983. The site's 1994 cleanup plan included use of an innovative chemical treatment wall (CTW) to detoxify VOCs as the groundwater flows through the wall, with a final cap to be determined after cleanup. Construction of the CTW finished in 2000. A permeable soil cover, which allows precipitation to flush contaminants from the landfill through the CTW, plus an infiltration gallery and a bedrock extraction well, which both help in the flushing of the contaminated groundwater, were completed in 2001.

The City of Somersworth owns the landfill property and much of the wetland areas northwest of the landfill. Reuse at the Site after landfill closure began in 1978 when the city redeveloped approximately 10 acres of the eastern portion of the landfill into a recreation area, which included ball fields and basketball courts. Use of these recreation facilities was discontinued in 2011, except for a paved basketball court on the southern fringe of the landfill. The Site remained largely unused until the solar array project that breaks ground August 12, 2024.