[CPEO-MEF] Firm says toxin threat at site diminished

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

[Massachusetts]
FRAMINGHAM
Firm says toxin threat at site diminished
Developer seeking to build housing; neighbors concerned
By Peter Costa, Globe Correspondent, 10/15/2002

Consultants for the US Air Force said they will file documents with the
state within a couple of months asserting that ground water
contamination in the Saxonville neighborhood at the New England Sand and
Gravel site, which was used for chemical experiments in 1986, has
decreased tenfold and no longer poses a significant threat to humans or
to the environment.

The business is on a former Air Force test site, and National
Development of Newton has proposed building a 730-unit mixed-use
development on the land.

In the Air Force experiments, a polymer compound was tested as a
possible agent to patch holes in runways that were damaged by bombs.
Materials from previous tests had been broken up and stored on what is
now the New England Sand and Gravel site.

A toxic substance from those materials called PCE, or
tetrachloroethylene, leached into the soil and contaminated ground
water, according to Thomas Woodard of URS Corp., a Portland, Maine, firm
the Air Force hired. He presented the URS Corp. findings at a public
meeting sponsored by Save Our Towns, a multitown neighborhood group
organized to coordinate public participation in the review process for
the proposed Villages at Danforth Farm development.

Residents were skeptical about the findings and asked dozens of
questions about the report, expressing concerns about well contamination
and about the possible health threat to those who would live atop the
site if the development were approved.

''The question is: Have they placed enough [test] wells in enough
places? They think they have. I think we have to have someone else look
at it to say they did or they didn't,'' Andrea Carr-Evans,
communications chairwoman of Save Our Towns, said in an interview after
the meeting.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/288/metro/Firm_says_toxin_threat_at_site_diminished-.shtml

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