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We CAN Clean Up PFAS(We don't HAVE to drink it!)We are facing a cost of a half-million dollars per year to filter PFAS out of our reservoir. Instead, we could investigate where that PFAS is coming from, and remove it at the source. This webpage discusses the steps we've taken toward that goal in 2022, and the next steps proposed in 2023-2024.
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Simulation of Contamination of Groundwater Wells in Woburn MA from 1960 to 1986: (Click for YouTube video) "From Wooster College Geology Program; Childhood Leukemia cases linked to groundwater wells containing TCE in the 1970s."
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There's a movie made about the Woburn water contamination: A Civil Action, starring John Travolta. The movie dramatizes the true story of how John Travolta's character traipses around the woods of Woburn to find half-buried barrels dumped in wetlands, which were causing cancer in Woburn residents downstream for decades.
I happened to work for several years at West Cummings Park in Woburn, which is located on Washington Street, right on the red spot labeled "Grace Plume" on the map above. I worked there in the early 2000s, after the cleanup occurred, but the people of Woburn still all said "Don't drink Woburn water!" The hotspot was on the Aberjona River in the woods behind the office park. Our multi-building office park was "remediated" by disallowing ground contact -- the entire office park was paved to "seal in" the contaminants. Since office parks should have picnic areas so employees can go outside for lunch, Cumming Park built those as "raised structures" with 3 feet of dirt added ABOVE the pavement, with picnic tables on top of the dirt.
I loved the heroic story of A Civil Action, and I kept a copy of the book on my office desk, to show all new employees at my office. One day, our out-of-state boss asked all of us Woburn employees if we'd like to move to a bigger office. I said, "Bigger is fine, but it'd be better to move to a place that doesn't feel like a paved-over toxic waste site." He asked why it felt like that, and I responded, "Because our parking lot is literally a paved-over toxic waste site!"
The Woburn story is relevant to Randolph and Holbrook because we can use the same methods that Woburn used, to find our underground PFAS plumes. They did it in the 1980s -- the technology is not rocket science and our DPW is entirely capable of it. It just requires traipsing around in the woods taking water samples and soil samples, and sending them to a PFAS testing lab. I have done that traipsing myelf in Braintree, to try to find a PFAS hotspot from their abandoned airport -- I send in my water samples to a lab for $75 -- I haven't found a PFAS hotspot yet, but I'll keep trying!
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The same company that toxified Woburn, W. R. Grace, also happened to be my neighbor when I lived in North Cambridge around that same time. The Grace property was between my home and the Red Line Alewife station -- shown in the photo behind all those fences, because it was a toxic waste site too (asbestos contamination in this case). People who walked to my home from Alewife between the two fences would comment, "It feels like you're walking through a toxic waste site," because, once again, they literally were.
W. R. Grace held neighborhood meetings because they wanted to develop those acres -- I attended and suggested they remediate by removing all the dirt for 3 feet deep on several acres, which the EPA estimated would cost a few million dollars. The Grace developers said, "Oh, we'll put up tents during construction so that the asbestos won't get airborne and you'll all be fine, trust us!" I responded, "I don't trust W.R.Grace because I saw the movie!" The Grace property still remains undeveloped, and still remains behind fences if you visit there now.
The Cambridge story is relevant to Randolph and Holbrook because we can use the same methods to stop the TLA Trash Transfer Station from building on the toxic waste site on our border. The EPA estimate of "a few million dollars" was made by an EPA guy who attended as a "resource" for the neighborhood meeting -- I asked him publicly to make an estimate because I knew he could, and I knew he'd agree that was a good solution. W.R.Grace disagreed -- they didn't want to pay millions to remediate before they even started building! The Cambridge ConComm at the time did not require W.R.Grace to remediate before construction -- we stopped them by protesting as a neighborhood group -- in other words, their ConComm rules were not strong enough to enforce toxic cleanup.
We can make our ConComm rules stronger, so that we CAN require TLA to remediate. The result might be something like in Cambridge -- where W.R.Grace gave up on a brownfield development because the remediation cost was too high. Or the result might be something like in Woburn -- where W.R.Grace remediated as part of a brownfield development. If we find a PFAS hotspot at the Superfund site, the Holbrook ConComm could require TLA to remediate by removing contaminated soil, perhaps including downstream in Randolph. It might not stop TLA from building -- but it will give the people of Randolph and Holbrook some real benefit!
Here are notes from the Battelle representative:
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