Residents wary of Wenham Lake assurances (MA)

The Beverly Citizen (MA) reports:

Treatment of groundwater pollution near Beverly Airport has begun and an environmental engineering company hired by the city expects the sites to be clean sometime next year.

But some residents expressed concerns about the assuring words from the engineers this week, calling for further investigations and a more extensive cleanup process at public meeting Tuesday night.

The cleanup work at the city-owned General Aviation, Nike missile and Casco Chemical sites has drawn increased public attention because Wenham Lake, the public water supply for Beverly, Salem and part of Wenham, is less than a mile to the east of the sites.

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Alliance Environmental Inc. of Cambridge took over work that had been started by Ransom Environmental Inc., a firm the city dumped after it was criticized for its work in the late 1990s.

Alliance president Richard Hittinger said the exact source of the pollution is unknown and does not appear to still be present. What is clear is that the pollutant that exceeds acceptable levels for trichloroethylene, or TCE, which likely came from degreasing operates that were conducted in the area by the military at least 50 years ago. Some of the degreasing may have even occurred outside the hangers, Hittinger said.

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Hittinger said a “sparge system” has been installed to treat TCE in the ground water. That, combined with the fact that the TCE is degrading and showing very little movement, means the water supply is not threatened.

“We can confidently say the pollutants are not moving towards Wenham Lake and it is not a threat to Wenham Lake,” Hittinger said.

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“The contaminants are degrading faster than it is moving,” Hittinger said. “It is a shrinking plume.”

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But one attendee said another company should be brought in to do further analysis.

Rene Mary said the properties shouldn’t be declared safe until a company not connected to the Beverly city government or the Salem and Beverly Water Supply Board gets involved. She compared the situation to getting a second opinion from a doctor.

“I think we should get some unbiased opinions here,” Mary said.

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