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Excavation Completed at Residential Properties in Baldwinville, MA

Release Date: 11/14/2006
Contact Information: Angela Bonarrigo - (617) 918-1034

(Boston, Mass. - Nov. 14, 2006) - EPA has completed the final phase of excavation of PCB-contaminated soils from residential properties near the former Temple Stuart facility in Baldwinville, Mass. Community members are invited to visit EPA’s site trailer on Friday, Nov. 17th, between 1 and 7 p.m. to review information on the clean up or to ask EPA’s site manager questions about the cleanup of their properties.

EPA clean up experts have worked in the community since 2003 to find and remove the PCB-contaminated soils from the neighborhood near the former manufacturing facility. In total, more than 15,000 tons of PCB-contaminated soil and debris have been excavated from 67 residential properties and shipped off-site for disposal at permitted facilities. The total residential cleanup costs to date are approximately $11 million.

Since beginning the project in 2003, EPA has sampled 113 properties and identified 67 which required excavation of PCB contaminated soil. Throughout the project, EPA has conducted the sampling, excavation and restoration activities in phases, which allowed the contaminated soil to be removed as quickly and efficiently as possible. This approach also allowed individual residents to provide valuable input to EPA. All 67 properties have been backfilled with sand, clean soil and loam, and appropriate grass seed sown. Since last spring, EPA contractors have been excavating soil from a final group of properties and restoring properties and planting trees and shrubs to replace those removed during excavation in 2005 and 2006. Several yards will have their trees and shrubs replaced next spring.

PCBs - polychlorinated biphenyls - are very toxic and environmentally persistent chemicals. The manufacture of PCBs was stopped in the U.S. in 1977 due to evidence that PCBs build up in the environment and can cause harmful health effects. The residential property contamination is believed to have settled on the nearby neighborhood from waste burning activities that occurred during past operations at the former Temple Stuart facility. In 2002, EPA completed a $3.5 million cleanup of the facility itself.

Information on this site is available online at: http://www.epaosc.net/BaldwinvilleResidentialPropertiesMA.
Information on the Temple Stuart facility cleanup can be found at: http://www.epaosc.net/TempleStuart.

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