Last modified: Sunday, June 3, 2007 11:37 PM EDT EPA: Foxboro not responsible if it forecloses on hazardous land BY MICHAEL GELBWASSER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF FOXBORO - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says the town won't be liable for cleaning up a hazardous waste site if the town forecloses on it. Town officials are considering taking title to 1.77 acres on County Street at the Mansfield line, site of the former Hatheway & Patterson factory. The rest of the Superfund site is in Mansfield. Town Manager Andrew Gala had raised the liability issue with the EPA. An agency official said that under federal regulations, the town would not be liable unless it "causes or contributes to the release or threat of release" of hazardous waste there. However, if the town takes ownership, its plans cannot interfere with the EPA's cleanup of Hatheway & Patterson land over the Mansfield line, said Richard Cavagnero, deputy director of the agency's Boston office of site remediation and restoration. Mansfield-Foxboro line Hatheway & Patterson, straddling the Mansfield-Foxboro line in the north end, previously treated wood with pentachlorophenal (PCP) suspended in fuel oil and other chemicals to preserve it. The company occupied the site from 1953 to 1993, when it filed for bankruptcy. Mansfield now owns 38 acres there, and hopes to reuse it for business. The EPA approved a $12.1 million cleanup plan in October 2005. The EPA is funding 90 percent of the cleanup, and the state Department of Environmental Protection is paying for the rest. The Superfund program makes federal funds available to cleanup toxic waste sites where private financing is unavailable.