Source: The Boston Globe, May 6, 2012
Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com
Tannery near condo complex
For the next eight weeks, workers from the US Environmental Protection Agency will truck away mounds of arsenic-filled soil from a 28-unit residential complex where a tannery stood for 81 years.
The arsenic was discovered in the last year when the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection conducted testing on the grounds of the former Creese & Cook Tannery at 55 Clinton Ave. The 12-acre property is just across the Crane River from the condo complex, and is considered a potential site to receive federal cleanup funds. After high levels of arsenic, chromium, and dioxin were found on the vacant property, the state learned that the nearby Crane River East Condominiums – thought to be the sales office of the tannery and redeveloped for residential in 1987 – actually served as the original manufacturing site of the tannery from 1903-1913.
According to the EPA, arsenic levels registered 30 times the legal limit in some parts of the condo complex and triggered the cleanup. Ted Bazenas, who is helping to coordinate the cleanup of the residential area – a swath of about 600 square yards behind a lot of six town houses – said arsenic stays in soil and cannot become airborne. “The hazard is from consumption, from actually the ingestion of the soil,” he said, adding that children would be more susceptible than adults to arsenic if they put their hands in their mouths after playing in soil.
Over the next two months, workers will remove gravel and soil from patios and also dig down about a foot and take away arsenic-laced soil from the designated area. After it is taken to a landfill, new soil and grass will be brought into the town house yard. The cost of the clean-up to the EPA will be about $300,000. “I don’t believe that there’s been any significant exposure but the potential is there,” said Bazenas.
Dominique Gabriel, who is the condo association treasurer for the Crane River East Condominiums, said she was relieved the EPA had begun the cleanup. In recent months, the condo association has held several meetings to discuss the findings and the remediation.
“It concerned us when it was discovered,” she said, noting that she was informed of the arsenic findings last fall. “We just want to get it fixed. I’ve been there for 15 years and knew there was a leather factory there but we were under the assumption when the condos were built that this [arsenic] wasn’t an issue.”
Mass DEP environmental analyst Christopher Pyott said some testing was done before the Crane River East Condominiums were built 25 years ago but said regulations were not as stringent as they are today.
“They did some soil testing and ground water testing and didn’t find a lot, and the conclusion was that it was not a waste site and didn’t need any further attention,” he said.
Creese & Cook was once a major employer in the Danversport section of Danvers, and used arsenic in the tanning process of animal hides to make shoes and handbags. It sold the property to Danversport Tannery in 1981, and tanning ceased on the land in 1984.