Albany General Store Brownfields Cleanup

Albany Community Trust is redeveloping two parcels in Albany Village to renovate the Albany General Store. Both lots are considered “brownfields,” meaning they have been found to contain soil with contaminants above levels set by U.S. and Vermont environmental regulations.

842 Main Street has been the site of a general store for more than a century. Gas was sold there for several decades.  Petroleum leaking from aboveground and belowground storage tanks was documented and remediated in the 1990s. Recent testing found evidence of additional petroleum leakage into soils was found around the former pump islands. In addition, arsenic above background levels has been found in the soils around the store and on the neighboring former residential property at 18 Old Street. The arsenic contamination on both lots is presumed to be a result of one or both of two large fires in the vicinity: one that destroyed the original general store in the early 1970s, or more recently, the fire that took down the Grondin house in December 2017.

The redevelopment of the store now has an approved Corrective Action Plan. This will involve excavating petroleum-contaminated soil to dispose of off-site and covering the arsenic-contaminated soil with an engineered-layer and 12-inches of imported soil or gravel.

ACT has developed a community-relations plan related to the site clean-up that includes notification of immediate neighbors and an on-line public meeting currently scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday June 23. For a link to the meeting, email Rob Dewees or call (802) 754-2245. Information on how to attend remotely is also available here.

Results from environmental assessments starting from April 2018 are available below, along with the Corrective Action Plan:

–       Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (April 2018)

–       Underground Storage Tank Closure Report (December 2018)

–       Phase II Environmental Site Assessment (February 2019)

–       Phase II Supplemental Environmental Site Assessment (September 2019)

–       Evaluation of Corrective Action Alternatives (February 2020)

–       Corrective Action Plan (May 2020)

–       Community Relations Plan: Albany General Store (June 2020)