Lewis Chemical Site Update - May
2024
WHAT'S THE CURRENT SITE STATUS?
Removal work to clean up the Lewis Chemical Site located at 12-24 Fairmount Court Hyde
Park, MA 02136 has been completed by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO CLEANUP THE SITE?
To date, around 5,200 tons of soil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), volatile organic compounds and heavy metals has been excavated and transported off-site to EPA-approved landfills.
Starting in May of 2024, EPA will begin to restore the site by bringing in clean soil
to backfill areas where contaminated soils were removed. Water is continuing to be
used to control dust from going into the air. Monitoring for contamination in the air
also is continuing.
Depending on the weather, remaining restoration work may take
until the end of July 2024.
Community members may see EPA and contractors on-site, typically between 6:00 am
and 4:30 pm, Mondays through Fridays. People also may see trucks coming in and out of
the site at different times each day.
Informational signs about the cleanup are posted. They are near each entrance to the
Fairmount Station and at the gate to the site. A traffic plan to truck off contaminated
soil and to bring in clean soil was created and discussed with the Boston police and fire
departments. A police officer directs traffic at the intersection of Fairmount Court
and Fairmount Avenue during trucking. An EPA contractor is also present by the train
station to direct traffic whenever a truck is moving past.
BACKGROUND:
The Lewis Chemical Site is comprised of three properties located
at Fairmount Court, 12-24 Fairmount Court, and Fairmount Avenue in Hyde Park,
Suffolk County, Massachusetts. The city of Boston (city) owns two parcels, and the
other is owned by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and managed as
environmental preservation land by the Department of Conservation and
Recreation (DCR). The entire
Site abuts the Neponset River and is adjacent to the Fairmount Massachusetts
Bay Transportation Authority train station and railroad tracks. The area around
the Site is a densely populated residential/commercial
neighborhood with approximately 20,858 people residing within a one-mile radius. Also, within the one-mile radius there are 15
schools, three nursing homes and six childcare centers.
Many different businesses operated at the City-owned properties from
the late 1800s until the early 1960s. The
Lewis Chemical Corp., operated from 1963 to 1983, collecting, transporting,
storing, and processing hazardous wastes. In 1983, after an explosion and fire at the
facility, Lewis Chemical’s license to operate was revoked.
From 1983 to 2021, the city and DCR completed environmental
assessments of their portions of the Site and found that the Site soils were
contaminated, most notably with polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) as the contaminant of concern, in addition to volatile organic compounds
(VOCs), and metals.
On June 21, 2022, and November 9, 2022, MassDEP and the city
respectively requested EPA’s assistance to address hazardous substances
existing at the Site. In October 2022,
EPA initiated a Preliminary Assessment/Site Investigation and confirmed that
the contaminants in Site soils pose a risk to public health and the
environment.
In January of
this year, EPA approved a $3.9 million short-term cleanup plan, or removal
action. EPA began this removal
action in March of 2023. The goal was to remove the source of contamination by excavating
and disposing soil contaminated with PCBs and other collocated hazardous
substances.
