Environmental Justice for Framingham

 

A densely populated Southeast Framingham neighborhood bears the burden of known toxic chemical sites.  From the 1880s to the 1960s companies like Dennison Corporation, Old Colony Tar Company and Commonwealth Gas located factories in Southeast Framingham because the area possessed railroads, waterways and a ready population of workers.  They brought jobs and prosperity to Framingham but also polluted the land and waterways with carcinogenic toxins such as coal tar, coal tar creosote, lead, chromium, arsenic and cyanide.   

 

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) has created a South Framingham Initiative.  A report sent  on August 7, 2017 to Framingham's Board of Health and concerned parties including our local volunteer environmental groups states the following:

 

The MassDEP Waste Site Cleanup program has focused its efforts on improving environmental quality in South Framingham on three particular sites:

 

a.  The now-closed General Chemical facility on Leland Street near the Woodrow Wilson Elementary School;

b.  The Mary Dennison Park on Beaver Street, which was constructed on a former dump used by the Town of Framingham and Dennison Manufacturing Company; and,

c.  The former Commonwealth Gas manufactured gas plant site located at 350 Irving Street.

 

This report presents detailed evaluations of each of these sites and strategies for tackling these complex problems.  Clean up once it begins,  will be slow and expensive.  It requires close monitoring. 

 

General Chemical on Leland Street

This area was polluted by General Chemical.  The Board of Health and FACES (an environmental group) have been successful in shutting them down and now they are in a remediation phase but General Chemical claims to have run out of money for the clean-up.  This issue is being dealt with by the Massachusetts Attorney Genera's office which is looking for other sources of funding including this site qualifying for the National Priorities List, aka "Superfund" site.  This would qualify the site for federal resources to address the cleanup needed at the site.

 

Mary Dennison Park

In 2013 I presented one of five articles at Town Meeting for improvements to the recreational and social needs of the children in Southeast Framingham. When they all failed to pass, I visited Mary Dennison Park and interviewed children and adults about what they would like in their park, and collected almost 800 signatures on a petition to improve recreational amenities in this large park dominated by 3 baseball fields and devoid of picnic tables, benches or soccer.  My efforts were rebuffed by the Parks Department and the Board of Selectmen.  I was told the park “might be polluted”.  Through painstaking research I learned that in 1990 when soil tests were performed before installing a basketball court, heavy metals and VOCs (toluene) were found.  The DEP’s Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup issued a Notice of Responsibility on August 14, 1990 requiring further investigation and remediation.  In 2013 a consultant wrote – “it appears neither were done.”   I made this information public and on May 5, 2014, a Community Meeting was held at the Woodrow Wilson School.  According to a news report in Patch, "an 11-year old girl asked the Town of Framingham Monday night, if Mary Dennison Playground is safe for her and her friend to play, as she heard it had high levels of lead and lead can be dangerous.  The Town and its consultant said right now, soil testing at the park indicates it is safe. The Town has decided not to close the park, at this time." 

 

A group of Town Meeting Members demanded that the playground be shut down until further testing was completed but our request was denied.  Sadly it was not until  September 9, 2014 that the tot playground was fenced off due to an imminent danger from high levels of lead.   (https://patch.com/massachusetts/framingham/town-forced-close-mary-dennison-playground-0.)

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MassDEP's South Framingham Initiative required additional soil testing, surface water and sediment testing in Beaver Dam Brook, and assessment of the utilities that run beneath the ground suface at the park. The next milestone in the eventual restoration of Mary Dennison Park is the completion of a Comprehensive Site Assessment, which is due in February 2018.  This will expand on some of the testing done over the last 2 years. In addition some residential properties on Beaver and Morton Street also need to be tested. The playground continues to be inspected to ensure that the cover materials remain intact.  This report can be found on MassDEP's on-line file viewer for Release Tracking Number 3-32015

 

 

 

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Other Serious Safety Issues.  The tot lot is just 6 feet from the entrance to the parking lot and 15 feet from Beaver Street, a truck route.  It is also right next to polluted Beaver Dam Brook.  Along the park on Beaver Street there were no crosswalks, traffic lights, speed limit or "Children at play" signs! I brought these frightening issues to the attention of the Board of Selectmen, the Department of Public Works, and finally the Traffic and Roadway Safety Committee.  The playground is now fenced in, there is a crosswalk and solar lighted signs.  The contaminated soil in the tot lot was removed but further testing is needed before the entire park can be cleaned up and a re-design and upgrade will begin.

 

 

350 Irving Street, Landscape Depot and Eversource

This 20-acre property is owned by Eversource.  It was listed as a watch site in a 2002 Superfund report but in order for the Town to collect $2 million in back taxes an agreement was struck to give a tenant, Landscape Depot (LD), a 3-year special permit.  Eversource was required to clean up the land.  Landscape Depot’s Special Permit expired in 2009 and they neglected to renew it.  Eversource also failed to begin the clean-up.

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In 2014 I became aware of this property because the Sudbury Aqueduct, which is under the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA), runs through it.  Aqueducts are being opened up for recreational use all over Framingham and open space is badly needed in this Southeast area.  If it were open to the public it would provide a walking trail from the this area through the downtown and along Farm Pond to above Cushing Park.  LD and other Southside businesses had obstructed the aqueduct and several important locations.

 

I also learned that the mulch made by LD sits on this contaminated land and is then sold to the unsuspecting public. LD had also allowed 10 businesses to squat on the property with no notice to the town and none of these businesses were paying personal property taxes.

Of greater concern was the fact that there had been 14 spontaneous combustion mulch fires extinguished by our Fire Department in the previous 4 years. Members of our group live in the area and personally experienced the noxious fumes from the mulch, the fires and a gas leak from an unknown underground gas pipe.

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I co-founded S.T.O.P. (Stop Toxic Operations and Polluters) with Precinct 16 Town Meeting Member, Ronda Andrews, to bring attention to this site and organized 3 protests in front of this site.  At numerous meetings with the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Fire Department, the Board of Selectmen, and the Board of Health we advocated that LD be shut down.  On October 15, 2015 a number of Zoning By-Law changes were approved by Town Meeting.  The new By-Laws made Landscape Businesses a prohibited use.  At the ZBA meeting on 11-2-15 we presented a petition signed by 62 Town Meeting Members that the ZBA deny LD a permit.  To our dismay, LD said they were not a Landscape Business and the ZBA gave them a 1-year special permit as a Storage and Distribution Use even though this use requires a special permit from the Planning Board not the ZBA.

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Despite our efforts they were awarded another special permit due to expire on November 16, 2017.

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According to DEP's South Framingham Initiative Report, asbestos was also found on this site and Eversource was required to remove it in April.  In May PCB cleanup began but has not been completed.  In June a new tar seep was observed and access to the area is restricted.  Investigations continue of underground pipes and other infrastructure left after the gas plant closed as well as additional investigation of a former underground tar holder.  MassDEP disagrees with the environmental consultants from Eversource and is meeting with them.

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Years ago we asked that warning signs be posted.  Finally in July 2017, Eversource posted multi-lingual signs (English, Spanish and Portuguese) around the perimeter of 350 Irving Street property, along the Sudbury Aqueduct and on the temporary fencing around the PCB soil excavation in the southern wooded area, to inform trespassers and other members of the public that hazardous materials are present at the site.

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