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The EPA's Protection in Massachusetts????

Toxin's path over 20 years mapped out


By Jennifer Huberdeau, North Adams Transcript
North Adams Transcript

Tuesday, December 6
NORTH ADAMS — When 42,401 pounds of liquid trichloroethylene mixture
was pumped out of the 1,200 or so 55-gallon drums Sprague Electric
buried at the Fairgrounds Avenue dump in 1991, most city residents
thought the hazardous waste had gone the way of the company that put
it there. It was not until 1997 when toxins began to seep into homes
along the city's West End that thoughts of trichloroethylene (TCE)
contamination of groundwater began to re-enter the public consciousness.

Now, as the state Department of Environmental Protection standards are
poised to become tighter for the TCE amounts allowed in groundwater, a
group of undergraduate students from Mount Holyoke College are coming
to the city to present a study detailing what has happened with the
plume of contaminants over the past 20 years. The group, led by
professor Emily Monosson, will present its findings Thursday at 6:30
p.m. in the Sullivan Lounge at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

"We worked with several city residents who came up with several issues
they would like to see addressed. One thing we heard was that people
would like to see a database compiling all the numbers coming out of
the DEP reports for the monitoring wells over the last 20 years,"
Monosson said.

While one student in Monosson's class at Mount Holyoke tackled the
creation of the database, another researched types of remediation used
for TCE and its byproducts. Another learned about lactose addition
remediation, which is being used at the Brown Street site, and while
two other students prepared a history of the site.

History not known

"We believe there are a lot of people who live there (in North Adams)
but don't know the history of the area," she said. "Right now the
state's standards are 300 parts per billion. That's being changed to
30 parts per billion. The guidelines are becoming more stringent."

Monosson said sites like those in North Adams, which have been well
within the state's guidelines, are now being looked at to make sure
they will still be in compliance with the new regulations.

"It could turn out everything is fine," she said.

One student has created a color-coded map showing the areas of
contamination and how they have changed over the years.

"For the most part the concentration numbers are going down," Monosson
said.

TCE, a chemical degreaser used at the Brown Street plant of the former
Sprague Electric Co., is a toxic chemical. Exposure over time can lead
to health problems such as nausea, liver, kidney, or lung cancer, skin
rashes, eye problems, liver problems, kidney disease, heart problems,
deafness, and birth defects.

When toxic vapors were discovered in 17 homes on Alton Avenue, Avon
Street and West Main Street in 1997, the immediate plan of action by
American Annuity Group, then in charge of the cleanup for former
Sprague sites, was to seal the basements of each contaminated home.
Dissatisfied, the homeowners banded together, taking legal action
against the company. Following mediation, American Annuity Group
purchased the 17 homes for fair market value.

The area, now a stretch of open fields, forgotten roads, and abandoned
street signs sits vacant. Not much has been said about the site until
recently, when DEP officials came to the city in August to speak about
the addition of monitoring wells being placed in the Harding Avenue
area, on the other side of the Hoosic River.

"This is something standard. There is no cause for concern," Elizabeth
M. Stinehart, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental
Protection's Western Region said in September.

Stinehart said the engineers of Blasland, Bouck & Lee, now overseeing
the project, are presumably looking for volatile organic compounds,
which was stated in an Aug. 22 letter from the engineering firm to the
residents on Harding Avenue.

Mark Patnode, whose home was part of the 1998 purchase, said he
believes the engineering firm always had the intention of installing
additional monitoring devices in the area. In September, he said
several of his former neighbors had fallen ill during or after the
purchase negotiations, but no link has ever been made.

"Some people (from the neighborhood) have passed on. Others are still
living in the area. Some of them were ill while we were there. There's
never been a connection made (between the illnesses and the
contaminants). It's always in the back of someone's mind. It will
always remain a question," he said.

Monosson, a toxicologist, said she specializes in community projects,
working in a different community each year. Her interest in the city
began when a colleague secured a small grant in 2004 to look at TCE
contamination in the state.

"We were looking for cases of vapor intrusion studies when we came
upon North Adams," she said. "We were surprised we couldn't find a
community group associated with this issue. Most other communities
with TCE contamination have a community group."

Area residents including former City Council candidate Eric
Buddington, who holds a degree in environmental science, and Elena
Traister, an environmental studies instructor at MCLA, helped
Monosson's group identify areas of interest.