Testing along Neponset finds no risk from prior taint
Hikers, runners, cyclists, and dog-walkers who frequent the shores of the Neponset River can breathe a little easier.
The results of tests performed last December and January on soil along the river bank show that - with one exception - there is no contamination from dredging done in the river in the 1960s. Testing was done on both the Milton and Boston sides of the river.
The one problematic area identified was near the state Department of Conservation and Recreation building, located at 7 Brush Hill Ave. in Milton. There, officials found elevated lead concentrations that will require limited removal of contaminated soil.
Wendy Fox, spokeswoman for DCR, said the building was formerly owned by the MDC and is used only occasionally. The lead was found in a grassy area behind the parking lot, she said, an area "not used for recreational purposes, so we don't think it's a hazard to the general public."
Joe Ferson, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Management, said the agency expects to do more soil testing next month on the site, and removal of the contaminated soil should be done before summer.
State officials will discuss their findings at two public meetings, the first tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m., at Hyde Park Branch Library, 35 Harvard Ave., Hyde Park. The second will be May 6, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at St. Gregory School, 2214 Dorchester Ave., Dorchester.
Officials from the state departments of Environmental Protection, Conservation and Recreation, and Fish and Game initiated the river bank sampling program to determine the safety of soil dredged from the Neponset River in the 1960s and deposited along the shoreline. At issue was whether the soil contained polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, - which can cause cancer - or metals such as lead and arsenic that once were ofen present in industrial waste.
One area that wasn't tested was the popular Neponset Greenway Trail that runs from Central Avenue in Milton to Tenean Beach in Dorchester. That area had already been thoroughly vetted during construction of the trail.
The issue of possible PCB contamination on the river's banks is separate from the issue of PCBs in the river bed, due to past industrial usages along the river. A federal study unveiled in January showed that PCB levels in river sediments behind the Tileston & Hollingsworth dam in Hyde Park, for instance, run as high as 231 parts per million; anything over 2 parts per million is considered unsafe.
The levels at the Baker Dam on the Milton-Dorchester line at Lower Mills peaked at about 30 parts per million.
The state is considering several options to remove the contamination and improve recreational usage, including removing the two state-owned dams. Other options include erecting fish ladders to allow some passage of fish upriver, or building a bypass channel around the Hyde Park dam. Costs of the options range from $3.6 million to about $10 million.
The river bottom study also showed that PCBs were moving over the dams and into the ecologically sensitive Neponset River Estuary, and then into Dorchester Bay. The study found unsafe levels of PCBs in some fish caught in the lower Neponset.
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