PARIS – Environmental Protection Agency officials found chromium in the soil along the riverbank of the old A.C. Lawrence Leather Co. tannery pits.

The findings, following a site visit last week, confirm tests done a year ago by the Department of Environmental Protection.

“It looks like it might be getting into the river,” said Mike Barry, on-scene coordinator for the EPA. The levels will need to be verified from lab tests coming back within another two weeks, he said.

The testing is the most comprehensive done since 2000, when a resident complained of seeing a liquid substance oozing from the land into the Little Androscoggin River.

The pits comprise 46 acres where tannery sludge was dumped in an uncontrolled fashion until the practice was stopped in the 1970s. Tannery sludge contains degreasing chemicals and lead used in tanning hides, along with chromium.

Barry said the EPA brought officials from Massachusetts, the U.S. Geological Survey, an EPA contractor and three DEP officials. There were 25 soil samples taken, along with four water samples and six sediment samples.

Barry said the EPA would like to do some remediation work on the site before the end of this year. Funds for the cleanup would come from the EPA’s hazardous waste site cleanup program.

It’s still uncertain whether there will be a need to remove any of the contaminated soil before the site can be capped, he said.

“A lot depends on samples of the river water and the sediments,” he said. “That’s how the contamination would get into the ecology” of the surrounding area.

Barry said it would be nice if the EPA could recover some of the cleanup costs from A.C. Lawrence, but that’s doubtful, he said. The company went out of business in 1985, and voters at town meeting have steadfastly refused to take ownership of the property through foreclosure.

The company still maintains a Massachusetts address but has not responded to any tax bills sent over the years. The company owes close to $20,000 in delinquent taxes since 1985.

“We’ll have to go through the procedure seeking to recover costs” from the property owner, Barry said. But it’s doubtful anything will come of it.

The cleanup would consist of a combination of sludge removal and capping, he said. If all of the sludge is removed, the land could possibly be blacktopped and used for some kind of heavy industrial use.

“I wouldn’t put houses on it, that’s for sure,” he said.

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