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Former Texaco Property Cleanup Taking Shape

Former Texaco Property Cleanup Taking Shape

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 Feedback sought on first parcel of land
The state Department of Environmental Conservation is accepting public comments through Jan. 31 on a proposal to remediate a small portion of the abandoned Texaco Research Center site just outside of Beacon.
The DEC has broken the 153-acre property, now called Glenham Mills, into nine pieces, or "operable units," that correspond with Town of Fishkill tax parcels. Each will have its own remediation strategy. The first parcel under consideration is also the smallest — a 0.67-acre wooded patch north of Washington Avenue.
The Glenham Mills property was the home of a textile mill in the early 1800s. After Texaco purchased the land in 1931, it built a complex where more than 1,000 employees researched and developed aviation gasolines and other petroleum products. By the time the center closed in 2003, Fishkill Creek, which divides the property, had been heavily polluted with petroleum, coal products and solvents.

The state has assessed the impact of that pollution on fish and wildlife, the soil and human health. Remedial measures have included decommissioning storage tanks, excavating soil, repairing dams and sparging, in which pressurized air is injected below the water table, forcing gasoline or solvents into the soil, where they are extracted. The groundwater has been tested annually since 2009.
"It may look like nothing has been going on, but work has been performed for decades now," said Greta Kowalski, a DEC geologist.
Once remediation of Glenham Mills is complete, years from now, DEC will retain oversight through a site-management plan and environmental easements. "It's like the Hotel California," Kowalski said. "You can check out, but you can never leave."
Chevron, which merged with Texaco in 2003, has sent proposals to the DEC to remediate most of the operable units. Once a plan is set for the first unit, known as OU-3, Kowalski said the next candidates could be OU-1B, a 15-acre parcel that once had a church, or OU-1E, a 93-acre segment south of Washington Avenue and Fishkill Creek known as the Back 93, which Texaco used for worker recreation.

The Back 93 is probably the most attractive parcel for development; a 2021 Chevron report identified two sludge lagoons, three chemical burial sites, a disposal pit and a container disposal site as "areas of interest." More than 26,000 tons of material were removed from the Back 93 in the 1980s.
Chevron's proposal for the 0.67-acre OU-3 is to excavate a 225-square-foot area where soil samples revealed semi-volatile organic compounds 6 inches below ground. Volatile chemicals can move from below ground into buildings, but nearby residences on Washington Avenue and Belvedere Road have not been contaminated, the company said.
How to Comment
Email Greta Kowalski at greta.kowalski@dec.ny.gov.
For more information, see Chevron's site at glenhammills.com.
Chevron has been trying to sell Glenham Mills since 2020, and there has been a renewed effort recently to market the site to "brownfield" developers, said Alex Cheramie, a company representative. An online flyer does not list a sale price but notes that the property offers an "excellent redevelopment opportunity" due to its proximity to Interstate 84 and Route 52. It is zoned for offices, laboratories and industrial or manufacturing uses.
Chevron would like to restore the land to "restricted residential" status, a classification that the DEC says would be appropriate for a public park. During a Jan. 13 public meeting at Fishkill Town Hall, an audience member asked Kristin Kulow, a representative from the state Department of Health, whether she would feel safe living in a house in OU-3 once it is remediated. "Yes, I would, absolutely," she said.
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