Zamelis was hired by the village to research the cleanup efforts at the site after concerns were raised this spring about contaminants at the site that were well beyond the state’s standards when the DEC closed the site in April 2006.

During Monday night’s board of trustees meeting, Zamelis presented a report on his review of documents pertaining to the spill, which was first detected late in 1987.

He told board members he has a long history of dealing with spills as both a former DEC employee and lawyer. The concentrations of the volatile organic compounds the reports refer to are measured in parts billion. One part per billion is equal to one second out of 32 years or one minute out of 2,000 years, he explained.

``I want you to understand how little that is,’’ he said, adding that it is virtually impossible to clean a spill to that standard.

Mobil’s efforts to cleanup the petroleum that spilled from the underground tanks used seven different techniques from excavating soil to pumping out groundwater and passing it through activated charcoal.

In his 20 years of working on spills, seldom does he see one as aggressively remediated as the Chestnut Street site.

``Mobil spared no expense,’’ he said. ``I can’t tell you how much Mobil spent, but I can tell you it’s expensive.’’

Zamelis took the board through a timeline of the cleanup efforts conducted by Mobil, which included so many monitoring wells the site was ``peppered’’ with them.

The cleanup involved 17 years of active soil remediation from 1988 to 2005 and 11 years of groundwater remediation from 1994 to 2005.

Approximately 250 cubic yards of soil were removed from the site and seven million gallons of groundwater were pumped and treated. Seven tons of hydrocarbons were recovered, which is roughly equivalent to 2,333 gallons of gasoline.

Zamelis said there was no evidence to indicate the hydrocarbon plume ever reached or will reach Willow Brook or Otsego Lake. No evidence exists to indicate the spill impacted the village’s drinking water supply.

The records did show that at the time the site was closed by the DEC, benzene at a concentration of 78.55 parts per billion and total petroleum hydrocarbons at 4,843 parts per billion were detected in a monitoring well located in a village-owned parking lot behind the former station.

Zamelis said the DEC is usually slow to close a site when pollution levels are still that high off site. He said the last reports he reviewed indicated the chemical oxidation treatments were working and dissolved hydrocarbon levels were decreasing when Mobil asked the DEC to close the site in November 2005. The agency granted the request and closed the site as ``not meeting state standards.’’

"I can’t explain whey they closed it,’’ he said.

"I think it is appropriate that you get an explanation,’’ he told the board. ``I think the village should ask for and get an answer from the state agency.’’

Zamelis said it is ``probably unlikely they will make Mobil go out and do anything else.’’

There was little discussion and the board voted unanimously to have Zamelis write a letter, to be signed by the Mayor Carol Waller, to the DEC requesting an explanation of why the site was closed.

Zamelis also reviewed documents concerning a spill at the former Smith Ford location on Chestnut Street. The spill was detected when a potential purchaser of the property was conducting an analysis of the site.

Research revealed there had been three underground storage tanks on the property, which were removed by a previous owner in 1987. Soil borings indicated hydrocarbons in excess of state standards in two of three locations at the site.

Zamelis said there was not a great deal of data available and the DEC closed the site in May 2005 based on findings that indicated only minor amounts of groundwater contamination.

If there is construction at the site, it is possible there may be contaminated soil that would have to be addressed, he said, but it would be a cost of development.

He told the board it is likely there are other similar situations around the village and recommended no further action.

Otsego Lake Watershed Coordinator Win McIntrye said Tuesday that asking for an explanation from the DEC was ``absolutely the right thing to do.’’

McIntyre said he believes the DEC closed the remediation efforts prematurely while contamination was above state standards without a good reason. He said he understands it takes a long time to clean up a spill and acknowledged Mobil’s efforts, but thinks it was not carried out long enough.

``Why not continue? It’s not like Mobil is crying poor,’’ he said.

The former Mobil station is now owned by Vin Russo, who also owns Mickey’s Place on Main Street. Russo currently operates a parking lot on the site of the station. He was out of town on Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

Zamelis presented the village with invoices totaling $2,950 for his review of the spill documentation.