Comment sought on Walpole Superfund site cleanup

The Environmental Protection Agency is inching toward cleaning up a 27-acre South Street site contaminated by a history of industrial activity stretching from the 1600s to the mid 1980s.

PDF: See the EPA cleanup proposal

A proposed $13 million cleanup plan would contain and treat the Superfund site's contaminated groundwater, excavate and dispose of contaminated soil at the site, establish land use and access restrictions, and excavate, dredge and dispose of soil and sediment from the Neponset River along with a former mill tailrace and Lewis Pond.

Superfund is a federal label for abandoned hazardous waste sites which have been placed on an EPA National Priorities List for cleanup.

If all goes well, the finalized cleanup plan, also called a Record of Decision, could be implemented within two years, said EPA Remedial Project Manager Dave Lederer.

As part of a federally mandated 30-day public comment period, the proposed plan is available for review at the public library and online at: www.epa.gov/region1/superfund/sites/blackburn.

Interested parties can fax, post, or e-mail comments relating to the proposed cleanup plan to Lederer.

The public comment period closes July 18. The EPA will then publish - hopefully by September, Lederer said - a Record of Decision that will describe the final plan for cleaning up the site.

A public hearing at Town Hall Monday, July 14, will give residents a chance to collect information on the cleanup plan for the area, known variously as the Blackburn and Union Privileges site, Shaffer Realty Trust Site, and the South Street Site.

According to the EPA, the hearing will have two components:

From 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. residents can ask questions and receive answers. Lederer said representatives from the EPA, as well as consultants hired by possible responsible parties, will be present to answer questions.

From 7:30 to 9 p.m. a court reporter will be present to formally record public comments. These formal comments, along with any received by mail, fax or e-mail, will then be "stacked up" for possible inclusion in the finalized Record of Decision, Lederer said.

The Record of Decision is a "key thing" in getting to the actual cleanup of the site, Lederer said.

The EPA, along with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, must then sit down with the potentially responsible parties to negotiate funding for the cleanup.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, a variety of industrial and commercial uses employed hazardous substances, including chromium, arsenic and mercury at the site. From 1920 to 1937, Multibestos manufactured brake linings with asbestos. Kendall Co. then used the site until 1985 for fabric production, which involved the discharge of wastewater.

Tyco Healthcare, now called Covidien, is one potentially responsible party due to its ownership of the Kendall Co.

Anyone interested in participating in the public comment period can contact Dave Lederer, U.S. EPA, at One Congress St., Suite 1100 (HBO), Boston, MA 02114; e-mail comments to lederer.dave@epa.gov; or fax comments, Attn: Lederer, to 617-918-0325.

Meanwhile, Sen. James Timilty, D-Walpole, along with three other members of the local legislative delegation, filed legislation that would allow for the creation of an Economic Development Industrial Corporation in town. This corporation would operate separate from town government, and could possibly acquire the Superfund site due to the owner's 15-year failure to pay taxes. At the same time, the corporation's involvement, rather than the town's, would shield the town from any liability associated with a contaminated site.

Town Meeting voted in May to authorize the creation of the corporation. Submitting the legislation was the next necessary step.

Jeb Bobseine can be reached at jeb@walpoletimes.com or 508-668-0243, Ext. 13.