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Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Serving the community of Ogdensburg, New York
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Former Mobil Oil site in Ogdensburg undergoing cleanup

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An Ogdensburg site contaminated by the former Mobil Oil Co. is undergoing a state-ordered cleanup.

A three-acre parcel of waterfront land at Lighthouse Point and owned by former Ogdensburg resident Thomas Duffy has been under excavation and removal of approximately 2,700 cubic yards of oil-contaminated soil, according to Claire R. Hassett, public and government affairs spokesperson for ExxonMobil in Fairfax, Va.

“On Oct. 1, ExxonMobil began excavating a portion of the former Mobil supply terminal in Ogdensburg as part of a consent order with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and a confidential settlement with the property owner, Mr. Thomas Duffy,” Ms. Hassett said Tuesday in an email message. “The excavation is necessary to remediate a small area of soil contamination remaining from our operations which ended in the mid-1980s.”

The remediation, which is being carried out by GES Environmental Services, Syracuse, is expected to be finished by the end of next week. DEC will have the final say on its completion.

Ms. Hassett declined to say how much the remediation will cost ExxonMobil.

“We are fulfilling our obligations under the consent order,” she said. “It is not our general business practice to provide details on cost.”

Mobil operated a terminal in Ogdensburg from 1899 until 1987. It included a tank farm and loading rack area with a separate dock area connected by 1,050 linear feet of product lines, Ms. Hassett said.

The pipelines were given an easement by the adjacent railroad owner and operator. The railroad parcel included passenger and freight stations, a round house and turntable. The track was abandoned in the 1970s.

Mr. Duffy, a boat builder who no longer lives in the city, bought the dock portion of the ex-terminal separately in 1981 and 1987. He owned adjacent land at the time.

The residual soil contamination from the dock operations was left in place and Mobil received a “No Further Action” status from DEC in the mid-1990s) based, according to Ms. Hassett, on the lack of groundwater impacts and current site use.

The majority of former railroad property is owned by the Fort La Presentation Company. Those 27 acres were remediated in 2007, according to Barbara O’Keefe, the association’s president.

“ExxonMobil takes its environmental responsibilities seriously,” Ms. Hassett added. “We are committed to the appropriate and safe remediation of our site in Ogdensburg. Our first priority is the protection of the health and safety of the local community and the natural environment.”

The consent order was issued in September 2011, according to DEC Region 6 spokesman Stephen W. Litwhiler in Watertown.

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