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More Bliss Corner properties test positive for toxic waste

The Standard Times - 12/6/2019

Dec. 6--DARTMOUTH -- More Bliss Corner properties have tested positive for PCBs, lead, or other toxic compounds in the soil.

New state tests, following testing on other properties earlier this year, have found that one or more of those contaminants exceed residential standards on several properties in the Dartmouth neighborhood.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection began examining pollution in Bliss Corner after buried waste was discovered on a house lot on McCabe Street in July of 2018. Subsequent soil testing on a few other lots prompted a full-scale investigation, which is ongoing.

At least seven Bliss Corner property owners received letters from DEP in October reporting test results from their land.

Of the seven properties for which The Standard-Times obtained those letters, five properties tested above residential standards for lead, two for toxic compounds typically associated with combustion (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), and one for polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. DEP is looking at the association of those materials with historical dumping of fill.

Two of the seven properties tested within state standards.

DEP and its environmental contractor, Green Environmental, tested soil at various depths at three locations on each property.

The PCBs were detected at 97 McCabe St., but the level was dramatically lower than at one of the initial four sites -- 20 Kraseman St. -- where tests earlier this year found 960 parts per million in the top 12 inches of soil.

In contrast, 97 McCabe St. had just 3.5 milligrams per kilogram of PCBs in soil that was 11-26 inches deep. (In soil testing, mg/kg is equivalent to parts per million.) The state residential standard is 1.

Jeffrey Silva, one of the homeowners at 97 McCabe St., declined to comment for this story.

Similar letters went to at least five other property owners in August. In one case, lead was detected at more than 40 times the standard.

At a public meeting in March, neighborhood residents expressed worries about their health and about the cost of cleanup. At the time, DEP official Gerard Martin said residential property owners would not be asked to reimburse the state for cleanup costs.

The agency is reviewing documentation of historical dumping in Bliss Corner. Town records show that from the 1930s to the middle of the last century, it was not uncommon for property owners to request permission to have fill dumped on their land or use their land for dumping.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency confirmed in October that it plans to review the results of state soil and water tests and possibly do its own sampling.

"To be clear, this does not mean that EPA is planning any cleanup at the site, but that we are evaluating the data from the state records to determine our next steps," EPA spokeswoman Kelsey Dumville said this week.

She said the EPA does not expect to do on-site work before the spring.

DEP has tested water in four household wells, and all fell within state standards for drinking water. Most homes in the neighborhood have public water.

The state does not consider inhalation to be a significant source of human exposure to the substances involved, according to Martin.

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