State wants radiation tests at waste site in Weymouth
State officials have decided that the 68-acre Weymouth Neck hazardous waste site should be tested for radiation contamination.
The decision marks a change in direction for Department of Environmental Protection regulators who earlier this year received a statement from
But in an April 24 letter to ConocoPhillips, one of the world's largest oil companies, a state environmental official told the company to prepare a plan to screen the site for the presence of radionuclides - unstable forms of radioactive elements such as uranium and lead that emit radiation as they decay - produced by the fertilizer factory that operated on the site for 100 years.
"DEP has also learned that radioactive materials can be associated with fertilizer manufacturing sites" operated as the Weymouth Neck plant was, wrote Stephen Johnson, a deputy regional director for the state environmental agency. "In light of this," Johnson wrote, "phosphate fertilizer factories are typically screened for radionuclides as part of the assessment of the site."
Johnson said screening for radiation would be prudent.
The site includes Webb State Park, East Bay at Weymouthport Condominiums, Weymouthport Condominiums, Tern Harbor Marina, condo complexes on River Street, and undeveloped property.
ConocoPhillips engineers had reported that only fertilizer plants that used processes introduced in the 1970s - after the Weymouth facility was closed - were at risk for radiation pollution.
The DEP learned about the radiation danger from Florida resident Eric Hanick, who grew up on the Weymouth Neck site in the late 1970s and early '80s.
If Hanick had not raised the radiation issue, "it wouldn't be on the radar screen," said DEP spokesman Ed Coletta.
Manufacture of fertilizer on Weymouth Neck began in the 1860s by Bradley Co. and continued with American Agricultural Chemical Co. ConocoPhillips (then Conoco) acquired American Agricultural in 1963, and four years later sold the Weymouth Neck property for development.
In the years before Love Canal brought national attention to hazardous waste sites and the passage of laws that require private property owners to clean up polluted sites, no thorough cleanup of polluted materials was carried out before new buildings were constructed on industrial sites.
"The condominiums I grew up at were built right on top of the wastes," Hanick said in an e-mail. "The developer used remnants of the factory for retaining walls, infill, and the factory slab was left in the rear of the buildings. . . . Also, soils that were heavily contaminated were spread all around when those condos were built."
From ages 8 to 14, Hanick played on the concrete slab of the fertilizer factory left behind by the redevelopment, while living with his family at 300 River St. He grew vegetables on soil that was polluted by lead and other metals left behind by fertilizer production.
Fertilizer was made at Weymouth Neck from an enriched ore called potassium rock. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, "phosphate ore naturally contains radionuclides. During processing they are released from the ore and concentrated." Fluoride, a recognized disease-causing agent, is among the naturally occurring products. Other sources of contamination include arsenic, lead, chromium, benzene, zinc, copper, and others.
ConocoPhillips said that in the cleanup of Weymouth Neck "highly impacted soils were treated in place or excavated and transported off-site to a licensed disposal facility." Other soils were consolidated and capped on an undeveloped area of Weymouth Neck.
But company spokesman Rich Johnson said nothing found on the site indicated the manufacturing processes that would lead to radionuclide contamination. "We have done extensive research on this issue," Johnson said.
Hanick contends the company's theory that radiation from phosphate rock was "carried off" fertilizer-making sites has been disproved by federal investigations of sites such as the Bayou Texar fertilizer plant in Pensacola, Fla., which Hanick called a sister site to the Weymouth Neck plant, and where radium contaminated drinking water. ConocoPhillips was sued in connection with that.
ConocoPhillips has said that health issues described by Hanick are "very unlikely" to have been the result of exposure to the impacted soils. Hanick, 40, a nonsmoker, said he has serious lung damage. He said his mother developed bone deformities and became disabled at an early age.
While continuing to contend that radiation contamination can be found only in factory sites that adopted "phosphogypsum stacks" (a radioactive waste product from making phosphoric acid), Johnson said ConocoPhillips would comply with the state's request to test for elevated radiation levels. Site manager Deborah LaMond said workers would go over the grounds with radioactive detection devices to conduct a gamma ray survey and also measure inside buildings for elevated radon levels, beginning in early June.
The DEP's Coletta said the state has relied on ConocoPhillips determine what screening is needed on the waste site. The DEP audits information from companies when they say the cleanup is finished, and an audit might have caught the radiation issue, he said.
Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com.
