Reid Hospital to help with contamination study

Reid Hospital officials said this week they will assist the Indiana Department of Environmental Management in further testing to determine who is responsible for contamination at the former hospital at 1401 Chester Blvd.

But Reid officials say they believe they are not responsible for the majority of contamination at the site, especially for asbestos in several sections of the seven-building complex.

"When we left that building, we left it as a fully functioning, accredited hospital," said Reid president Craig Kinyon. "We left that facility in move-in condition."

In a press release Tuesday, officials "made it clear that Reid bears no responsibility for the dilapidated and dangerous conditions inside the buildings..."

Previous owners and vandals have destroyed the interior of the once stately hospital building.

Tests done earlier this year revealed ground contamination in four areas on the former hospital property. Tests found contaminants such as arsenic, chromium, thallium and others toxic materials on the property.

IDEM officials have not determined the extent of the contamination.

"What our initial tests showed us is that more testing is needed," IDEM spokesman Dan Goldblatt said.

An IDEM official in April said the asbestos contamination in the buildings posed a more serious, and perhaps more costly, threat than the ground contamination.

IDEM has since sent requests to Reid; the property's current owner, Spring Grove Development LLC; and the two in-between owners — Rose City Development LLC and Whitewater Living Center LLC — for detailed histories of use of the property.

Initially, IDEM officials said they believed Reid was responsible for part of the contamination found on the site.

"We believe that, since Reid Hospital owned the site from 1904 through 2008, that it is likely responsible for the contamination and the historic fill," Goldblatt said.

Kinyon said Reid is cooperating with the project and is in the process of hiring an environmental consultant to work with IDEM on the next round of testing of the property.

Reid officials on June 30 submitted a 336-page report detailing their history of use of the property, including potential issues of contamination at the site.

In 1992, officials removed four 20,000-gallon underground diesel heating oil tanks. There was some evidence of a release of heating oil and the contaminated ground was removed.

According to documents, the last of Reid's radioactive material was removed in 1999 and the residual radioactive material attributable to licensed activities did not exceed current Nuclear Regulatory Commission criteria.

The hospital's last underground storage tank was removed prior to 2005, the report said.

The hospital also operated a medical waste incinerator on the site from 1989 through 1995, but ash was neutralized and transported to a landfill.

One of the areas where contamination was found was described as a public dump site that was cleaned before Reid left the property in 2008, Kinyon said.

"We and those who came before us at Reid were always good stewards of that property on behalf of the community, including up to and even after we moved out," Kinyon said.

"When we left, we fully believed that property would be developed and used by the new owners," he said. "We left behind more than 3,000 pieces of furniture and equipment items, including a fully functioning kitchen and laundry, ready for use.

"We are confident that we were always in compliance with environmental requirements that were current at the time, though clearly those laws have changed over the years," Kinyon said.

Reid sold the property in 2006 and became a tenant until its move to the hospital's new site in 2008.

Of the three property owners since Reid, only an attorney for Whitewater Living Center responded to IDEM's requests, saying the LLC no longer existed and the company conducted no operations related to the handling or release of any hazardous material at the site.

Requests for information from Spring Grove Development and Rose City Development were listed as undeliverable.

The owners of Spring Grove Development have abandoned the property and stopped paying taxes. Wayne County has filed suit against the company owners in an effort to claim the more than $527,000 currently owed.

Staff writer Bill Engle: (765) 973-4481 or bengle@pal-item.com. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/billengle_PI.