Firm may face penalties for staying at Superfund site
Firm fails to vacate Superfund site
The company that owns a 46-acre Superfund site in Concord has violated its agreement with the state to leave the contaminated property, and could face legal action within the next few weeks, a state public health official said.
Suzanne Condon, director of the Department of Public Health's bureau of environmental health, said
"They have clearly now violated the agreement and we have to call for an administrative hearing citing them for violation of the agreement. Then the attorney general can take much stronger enforcement action," she said last week.
A Starmet representative declined to comment.
About 30 employees still work on site, officials said. State and federal officials want the company out so a complete cleanup of hazardous material there can take place. Federal environmental officials recently released a report recommending that all buildings on the property be demolished, at an estimated cost of $64 million.
Melissa Taylor, a project manager with the US Environmental Protection Agency, said demolition and removal is the only way to protect against a potential release of dangerous materials. The recommendation is based on an engineering evaluation and cost analysis conducted for the EPA, which found contamination on the buildings' rooftops, interior walls, and floors, and on machinery and heavy equipment in the buildings. The EPA already has conducted some cleanup at the site.
Public health officials also are eager to conduct a health assessment. Once Starmet is gone, Condon said, the department's assessment "kicks into high gear" and officials will have access to the entire site and will be able to determine exactly what materials were used.
Condon said the health department will look for any connection between contaminants that were released at the site and incidents of cancer in the community. She said the study will focus on lung, bone, and thyroid cancers.
James West, a member of the Citizens Research and Environmental Watch, which has pushed for cleanup of the site since 1990, said residents would like to know what effects the contaminants may have had on the community.
"We know there were emissions from the plant over the years," West said. "The people who do have incidence of cancer are reasonably convinced there was some relationship to the facility."
Condon said health officials check the site weekly, and a safety assessment was conducted where the employees are working. She said the assessment did not turn up any "red flags" with regards to worker safety.
"We think it's not an ideal situation, but we have been doing everything we can so the community doesn't have any exposure of health threats and the workers on site are not working in a facility with high levels of exposure," she said.
The state health department had entered into an agreement with Starmet in May 2007 that called for the company to be out of the site by Oct. 31, 2007. Condon said Starmet officials contacted the department in mid-October and said they were having problems moving to their new site in North Andover. As a result, they could not relocate until this July.
Condon said the state denied the extension request. She said that because the company is in violation of its agreement, the department will conduct an administrative hearing, after which Starmet is expected to be cited.
The hearing could take place within the next "several weeks," she said.Known as the Nuclear Metals Superfund Site, the property is at 2299 Main St. Nuclear Metals, later named Starmet, manufactured depleted uranium-tipped munitions for the Army from the 1970s until 1999. Depleted uranium is a radioactive and toxic material.
The company also manufactured metal powders for medical applications, photocopiers, and specialty metal products, such as beryllium tubing used in the aerospace industry.
Jennifer Fenn Lefferts can be reached at jflefferts@yahoo.com.
