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Lower Neponset River now officially a federal Superfund cleanup site
By adamg on Mon, 03/14/2022 - 4:56pm
The Dorchester Reporter reports on today's official designation of the 3.7-mile stretch from the Mother Brook in Hyde Park to Boston Harbor, due to elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyls from decades of the river's former use as a dumping ground for a variety of factories along its banks.
The move means federal money and expertise for a cleanup program.
In 2007, the state diverted the Mother Brook where it flows under Hyde Park Avenue to clean up PCBs in that area - and end their continued flow into the Neponset - a program that sparked a 12-year legal battle over who had to help pay for that cleanup.
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Comments
I grew up in a town with a
I grew up in a town with a top 10 Superfund site where you had to move the rainbow gunk out the way to install the town water tanks. Drank glow in the dark Kool-Aid for the first ten years of my life.
Now I live around the corner from this. It is hard to get away from.
It's true
I've lived all over eastern MA, and every place had a toxic site within a few miles. The EPA has 40 sites in the state on their National Priorities List. Annoyingly, they are listed by the name of the polluter, rather than the location. They also have regional lists of "Sites with Superfund Alternative Approach Agreements," but not for the Northeast or the Mid-Atlantic. I suspect our region has lots more than others, because we've been industrialized the longest.
Map
Not sure if this covers all Superfund sites, but it shows a lot of sites in the area. Green means removed from the list.
https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live#map
superfund
about time!!
Governor Weld said he would do this almost 30 years ago
Incomplete
At least a couple that I know of are not on that map.
I grew up in Holbrook, where
I grew up in Holbrook, where Baird & Maguire tossed chemicals out the back door for many years. It is now safe enough for you to walk on it for 15 minutes once a year. It was the first time the EPA did incineration in heavily populated area.
Walk on what?
Walk on what?
On the Superfund site.
On the Superfund site.
There's no site, superfund or
There's no site, superfund or otherwise noted, unless you're referring to the whole city.
Disgusting this went on so
Disgusting this went on so long. Hire a powerhouse law firm to get it done. What is the impact of people's and wildlife's and water life's health?
But that's where all the good
But that's where all the good fish are. I caught a baby striper there when I was a kid right next to the bridge just before the Drive-In.
Someday
Yeah, when? How many superfund sites have had the designation for 20 years? 30? 40? The law goes back to 1980, after all.
Every time the economy stumbles, one place for additional government spending should be cleaning superfund sites. There's just no upside to leaving them around, slowly poisoning flora, fauna, and yes, people.
My wish
1000x more spending on enforcement for pollution laws so we don't end up with any new superfund sites from current activities.