[CPEO-MEF] Lake Cochituate and Natick Labs (MA)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Little accord on lake cleanup
Army report says no more work needed

By Peter Schworm
Boston Globe
April 14, 2005

An Army report that recommends against a cleanup of pollution in Lake
Cochituate appears scientifically sound, a key environmental regulator
said this week.

"I don't see any major problems," said Christine Williams, the US
Environmental Protection Agency official who is overseeing the cleanup
of the Army facility that adjoins the lake.

The report, however, is preliminary and has not undergone formal EPA
review, Williams said.

Town officials in Natick, where the base is located, have complained to
the EPA about the report, which found that fish contaminated by PCBs do
not pose a serious health risk and said a $2 million project to remove
contaminated sediment from the lake floor was not justified.

Fish caught in a section of the lake that borders the Soldier Systems
Center, an Army research facility commonly known as Natick Labs, contain
an above-average concentration of PCBs, manufactured chemicals that were
banned in 1979 as likely human carcinogens. Natick Labs accepts
responsibility for much of the pollution, believed to have been caused
by a transformer explosion in the 1980s and years of chemicals seeping
into the lake through rainfall runoff.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/04/14/little_accord_on_lake_cleanup

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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