DEP doesn't pass SMELL TEST!

After all these years fighting to get the Striar property cleaned up, a known hazardous waste site with elevated neighborhood cancer rates, the MA DEP SMELLED the soil?

How does that constitute TESTING?

How does that make the MA DEP credible?


Molly Cote, project manager for the DEP, said a visual inspection did not reveal contamination.

Johnston said there was no smell, which would be present with chlorinated benzene.

Cleanup of Middleboro waste site nearing completion
Rockland Industries site could be reused in two years
By Alice C. Elwell
enterprise correspondent


MIDDLEBORO — Officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection told town leaders Thursday the cleanup of the Rockland Industries hazardous waste site is in the home stretch and the land could be redeveloped in two years.

David Johnston, regional director of the DEP’s Lakeville office, recommended a two-year wait before the site is redeveloped to allow time to analyze data from monitoring wells.

Unaware of a recommended two-year waiting period, Michael Striar, an owner of the site, said he is ready to develop as soon as possible. Striar said he envisions a Plymouth Street railway station on the site. “It’s my A-number-one plan,” he said.

In November, DEP Commissioner Ken Kimmel set a Dec. 31 deadline to dig out the contaminated soil, Striar couldn’t meet the deadline and the DEP stepped in and hired experts to do the job.

Thursday’s meeting was called because town officials thought there would be testing to determine how far to excavate. But when the digging was complete, officials learned testing had not been done.

Johnston, the DEP’s regional director, said there was no indication of any contamination in the remaining soil. He said a 15-foot by 32-foot hole was dug 18 feet deep in a former lagoon where chemicals were dumped, 283 cubic yards of soil were removed and sent to a hazardous waste dump in Canada.

Molly Cote, project manager for the DEP, said a visual inspection did not reveal contamination.

“Things were not oozing out,” Cote said. “No ooey-gooey gross stuff was leaching out.”

Johnston said there was no smell, which would be present with chlorinated benzene. He said monitoring wells will be installed to test for any remaining contamination.

Johnston said Striar is required to pay back the cost of the $178,250 cleanup, plus interest.

The site at 255 Plymouth St. was a former chemical factory and the land was contaminated with chlorinated benzene, a cancer-causing chemical.



Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/x770707764/Cleanup-of-Middleboro-waste-site-nearing-completion#ixzz1ooMBMEL3