USA - State wants radiation tests at waste site in Weymouth
State wants radiation tests at waste site in Weymouth
By Robert Knox
Globe Correspondent / May 8, 2008
State officials have decided that the 68-acre Weymouth Neck hazardous waste site should be tested for radiation contamination.
The decision marks a change in direction for Department of Environmental Protection regulators who earlier this year received a statement from ConocoPhillips, the site's previous owner, indicating that the company was satisfied that its cleanup effort was complete and the site posed no significant risk to people living or working on it.
But in an April 24 letter to ConocoPhillips, one of the world's largest oil companies, a state environmental official told the company to prepare a plan to screen the site for the presence of radionuclides - unstable forms of radioactive elements such as uranium and lead that emit radiation as they decay - produced by the fertilizer factory that operated on the site for 100 years.
"DEP has also learned that radioactive materials can be associated with fertilizer manufacturing sites" operated as the Weymouth Neck plant was, wrote Stephen Johnson, a deputy regional director for the state environmental agency. "In light of this," Johnson wrote, "phosphate fertilizer factories are typically screened for radionuclides as part of the assessment of the site."
Johnson said screening for radiation would be prudent.
The site includes Webb State Park, East Bay at Weymouthport Condominiums, Weymouthport Condominiums, Tern Harbor Marina, condo complexes on River Street, and undeveloped property.
ConocoPhillips engineers had reported that only fertilizer plants that used processes introduced in the 1970s - after the Weymouth facility was closed - were at risk for radiation pollution.
The DEP learned about the radiation danger from Florida resident Eric Hanick, who grew up on the Weymouth Neck site in the late 1970s and early '80s.
If Hanick had not raised the radiation issue, "it wouldn't be on the radar screen," said DEP spokesman Ed Coletta.
Manufacture of fertilizer on Weymouth Neck began in the 1860s by Bradley Co. and continued with American Agricultural Chemical Co. ConocoPhillips (then Conoco) acquired American Agricultural in 1963, and four years later sold the Weymouth Neck property for development.
In the years before Love Canal brought national attention to hazardous waste sites and the passage of laws that require private property owners to clean up polluted sites, no thorough cleanup of polluted materials was carried out before new buildings were constructed on industrial sites.
"The condominiums I grew up at were built right on top of the wastes," Hanick said in an e-mail. "The developer used remnants of the factory for retaining walls, infill, and the factory slab was left in the rear of the buildings. . . . Also, soils that were heavily contaminated were spread all around when those condos were built."
From ages 8 to 14, Hanick played on the concrete slab of the fertilizer factory left behind by the redevelopment, while living with his family at 300 River St. He grew vegetables on soil that was polluted by lead and other metals left behind by fertilizer production.Continued... Click title to see second part
By Robert Knox
Globe Correspondent / May 8, 2008
State officials have decided that the 68-acre Weymouth Neck hazardous waste site should be tested for radiation contamination.
The decision marks a change in direction for Department of Environmental Protection regulators who earlier this year received a statement from ConocoPhillips, the site's previous owner, indicating that the company was satisfied that its cleanup effort was complete and the site posed no significant risk to people living or working on it.
But in an April 24 letter to ConocoPhillips, one of the world's largest oil companies, a state environmental official told the company to prepare a plan to screen the site for the presence of radionuclides - unstable forms of radioactive elements such as uranium and lead that emit radiation as they decay - produced by the fertilizer factory that operated on the site for 100 years.
"DEP has also learned that radioactive materials can be associated with fertilizer manufacturing sites" operated as the Weymouth Neck plant was, wrote Stephen Johnson, a deputy regional director for the state environmental agency. "In light of this," Johnson wrote, "phosphate fertilizer factories are typically screened for radionuclides as part of the assessment of the site."
Johnson said screening for radiation would be prudent.
The site includes Webb State Park, East Bay at Weymouthport Condominiums, Weymouthport Condominiums, Tern Harbor Marina, condo complexes on River Street, and undeveloped property.
ConocoPhillips engineers had reported that only fertilizer plants that used processes introduced in the 1970s - after the Weymouth facility was closed - were at risk for radiation pollution.
The DEP learned about the radiation danger from Florida resident Eric Hanick, who grew up on the Weymouth Neck site in the late 1970s and early '80s.
If Hanick had not raised the radiation issue, "it wouldn't be on the radar screen," said DEP spokesman Ed Coletta.
Manufacture of fertilizer on Weymouth Neck began in the 1860s by Bradley Co. and continued with American Agricultural Chemical Co. ConocoPhillips (then Conoco) acquired American Agricultural in 1963, and four years later sold the Weymouth Neck property for development.
In the years before Love Canal brought national attention to hazardous waste sites and the passage of laws that require private property owners to clean up polluted sites, no thorough cleanup of polluted materials was carried out before new buildings were constructed on industrial sites.
"The condominiums I grew up at were built right on top of the wastes," Hanick said in an e-mail. "The developer used remnants of the factory for retaining walls, infill, and the factory slab was left in the rear of the buildings. . . . Also, soils that were heavily contaminated were spread all around when those condos were built."
From ages 8 to 14, Hanick played on the concrete slab of the fertilizer factory left behind by the redevelopment, while living with his family at 300 River St. He grew vegetables on soil that was polluted by lead and other metals left behind by fertilizer production.Continued... Click title to see second part
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