Letter: Clarifying Cost of Full Cleanup vs. Partial Cleanup of Medfield State Hospital

Dear editor,

I wanted to clarify SHERC chairman John Thompson's April 13 comment in Medfield Patch on the cost comparisons of full removal of hazardous waste at the Medfield State Hospital property's Construction and Demolition area (C&D) versus DCAM's selected partial removal of the hazardous fill in the C&D Area. Thompson's comment appears in the April 12 Medfield Patch article, "."

The numbers John provided are DCAM's estimates of cleanup item costs, but are not what DCAM has proposed as the total cost for these alternatives. The Phase III evaluation of Alternative Cleanup Proposals – presented by DCAM to the town of Medfield – shows all the cost factors for each alternative, including costs for "contingencies" of 10 percent and 25 percent. DCAM's  alternative evaluations and selection include these contingency estimates. John's numbers, as seen in the article's comment section, do not.

When DCAM talked about the financial infeasibilty of the full removal at the public meetings it mentioned this total cost, including the 25 percent contingency. So comparisons of full vs. DCAM's chosen partial cleanup are actually $19.1 million (full) versus $3.9 million (partial).

Cost of Full Removal:

• Full removal – with move of pipeline: $15.3 million
• Total cost – with 10 percent contingency: $16.8 million
• Total cost – with 25 percent contingency: $19.1 million
  

Cost of Partial Removal (DCAM's selection):    

• Partial removal: $3.1 million  
• Total cost – with 10 percent contingency: $3.4 million
• Total cost – with 25 percent contingency: $3.9 million

There are approximately 25 cost elements in DCAM's estimates for each of the four alternatives. These are still being reviewed for accuracy, consistency  and reasonableness and our questions and clarification requests that will be part of the comments from the town due to DCAM on April 24.

Sincerely,

Bill Massaro
Medfield resident & abutter