They went on to say that the agreement stands, even if Kaba were to sell the site.

“By signing the administrative agreement, Kaba Ilco agreed to voluntarily remediate the site even if they sold the property,” Ulisheny and Kritzer’s email said.

Kaba is using a variety to techniques to try and remove the chemicals from the groundwater. Original efforts on its own campus have been successful in lowering the concentration of contaminants in the groundwater, though many monitoring wells show concentrations that are lowered from peak levels but are still above screening levels.

The two chemicals of most concern are tetra-chloroethylene (known as PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE), though groundwater monitoring wells — more than 50 built between 1992 and 2016 — check for five chemicals.

Just how long those chemicals have been in the ground is hard to say. The contamination was discovered in 1991, three years after Ilco Unican (later Kaba Ilco) purchased the property. Originally part of the Inverness Mills Co.’s cotton operation, the land was owned by Stewart-Warner Corporation/Bassick-Sack from 1945 to 1987. The company conducted metal finishing for furniture hardware, a process that used PCE and TCE.