Source: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com, July 25, 2016
By: Jim Haddadin
Saying a tentative plan to clean up pollution at the former General Chemical site in Framingham doesn’t go far enough, town officials are urging the property owner to undertake a more extensive remediation effort.
Trinity General Corp., a parent company that owns the 133 Leland St. property where General Chemical formerly operated, recently finished a draft plan to clean up the site. Its proposals include $1.8 million worth of remediation work and efforts to meet regulatory requirements.
However, health officials in both Framingham and Sherborn fear those measures won’t be sufficient. They argue the proposals don’t address contaminants that may have already seeped into the bedrock aquifer that supplies drinking water for Sherborn, which relies entirely on groundwater for its water supply.
Town officials also fear the remediation plan won’t adequately clean contaminated water entering the Sudbury aqueduct, which serves as a backup water supply for the MWRA, or address the potential for contaminants to reach Lake Cochituate in Natick.
“We have taken issue with a lot of information that they’ve put into the (draft plan),” said Carol Bois, an environmental site assessment officer working for the town of Framingham.
General Chemical previously stored and distributed petroleum-based chlorinated solvents at the Leland Street facility. The business closed in 2012, but its parent company only recently finished assessing the environmental damage left behind at the site under a five-phase cleanup program mandated by the state.
In a May 31 response sent to DEP, officials from numerous town departments in Framingham outlined their concerns regarding a draft remedial action plan for the site. The town’s goals include protecting nearby wetlands, ensuring the site can be redeveloped and protecting the neighborhood, which is home to an Environmental Justice population — a legal classification for communities of color and lower-income residents, who often bear the burden of living near polluted sites.
The town is also working to ensure the contamination doesn’t reach the nearby Woodrow Wilson Elementary School. At a public meeting earlier this year, a consultant hired by the property owner said there is no risk to the school. The contamination does pose some future risks for construction workers and others working inside buildings at the site, however. The main contaminants of concern are chlorinated volatile organic compounds and 1,4-dioxane.
One of the main points of contention now is whether contaminants have seeped into the bedrock aquifer beneath the site. Members of Framingham’s Board of Health have asked the property owner to install monitoring wells as deep as 75 feet underground to serve as an early warning system.
In Sherborn, the area of concern that could be affected by groundwater contamination includes 29 existing homes and an additional 124 units that have been proposed in two developments, The Fields at Sherborn and Coolidge Crossing.
Officials fear the state Department of Environmental Protection will allow General Chemical’s owner to carry out a lower-cost cleanup that doesn’t sufficiently protect the town’s well water, according to Town Administrator David Williams.
“We will be requesting a meeting with MassDEP and the EPA to discuss that timeline as soon as possible,” Williams wrote in an email Friday, “because we need to stay involved in the process and cannot allow the short and long term safety of Sherborn’s drinking water to be lowballed.”
Trinity General Corp.’s environmental consultant is currently reviewing comments received from the public. The company’s draft remediation plan will then be forwarded to the state for consideration.