Media Release: Toxic Dumpsites and Chemical Facilities Highlight 5th Annual Dirty Dozen Awards

For More Information: Cassie Wyss (617) 747-4374, Matthew Wilson (617)
747-4389

Boston - Toxics Action Center released the winners of its 5th Annual Dirty Dozen Awards, "honoring" twelve of the Commonwealth's top environmental and public health threats.

This year's awards include R. J. Kelly for its contamination of a Burlington neighborhood with gasoline, and Rivers Edge Development Corporation's toxic dumpsite in Methuen upon which a 35 lot housing community was built.

"While many polluters pose a threat to the Commonwealth, this year's winners deserve special recognition for the dangers they pose to the environment and their neighbors," said Cassie Wyss, a spokesperson for Toxics Action Center. "This is one holiday list you don't want to be on."

The awards, selected from nominations made by residents across the state, were chosen by a committee of environmental professionals, public health experts, and worker health and safety advocates. The recipients were selected based on the severity of the threat they pose and the unwillingness of the polluters and government officials to adequately address the situation.

See list below for descriptions of this year's winners.

A Dirty Dozen Award winner from 2000, a toxic waste site in Quincy proposed as a site for a new high school, was halted just one hour after it received its award last year.

Since 1987, Toxics Action Center has helped over 400 neighborhood groups address toxic and environmental health problems in their communities.

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2001 Dirty Dozen Awards -- Site Summaries

1. Cambridge Plating Company, Belmont
For over three decades, neighborhoods surrounding Cambridge Plating Company in Belmont have been exposed to noxious odors, disruptive noise, and toxic air pollutants. Known carcinogens, including chromium, cadmium, and trichlorethylene (TCE) are being released at levels that are in violation of EPA limits. Belmont residents are demanding Cambridge Plating Company eliminate all off-site odors and noise, and implement alternative non-toxic manufacturing processes.

2. R. J. Kelly, Burlington
R. J. Kelly has refused to aggressively address gasoline contamination that leaked from its underground tanks. More than a decade ago, R. J. Kelly and three other gas stations contaminated the water, soil, and air of Burlington residents with gasoline leaks. As a result, residents are breathing gas vapors that come up through the ground into their homes. The affected neighborhood, just outside Burlington High School, has high rates of breast cancer and has suffered four cancer deaths in recent years. Residents are demanding R. J. Kelly take responsibility for its mess.

3. Boston Hides and Furs, Chelsea
Noxious odors, stagnant water, rodents, fleas, flies, and pelts and blood in the streets are just some of the filthy habits of this business that affect Chelsea residents. Despite past agreements that Boston Hides and Furs clean its facilities and move its operations on Marginal Street, the company still continues to pollute the neighborhood. Residents are demanding the business clean up its act or get out of Chelsea.

4. Ward Hill Neck Landfill, Haverhill
A proposal to expand this Haverhill incinerator-ash landfill threatens the health of the Merrimac River and surrounding Bald Eagle wintering habitats. The incinerator and its landfill, surrounded on three sides by the Merrimac River, have emitted so much mercury that all freshwater fish in the area are contaminated. The Haverhill Environmental League is urging the Department of Environmental Protection and the Haverhill Board of Health to increase their scrutiny of the expansion and ensure Haverhill's health and environment are protected.

5. Winning Farm, Lexington, Woburn, Winchester
From 1978-1983, 18-wheel trucks dumped tons of contaminated construction debris and dirt at Winning Farm poisoning the property with DDT, lead, benzo(a)pyrene and dozens of other toxic chemicals. What was once an orphanage and a camp for city youth turned into a disposal site for various trucking companies. Despite orders to close and cap the landfill in the 1980s, little has been done and contamination from the site runs off into surrounding wetlands. Neighbors want a full assessment and cleanup of the illegal fill.

6. Rivers Edge Land Development, Methuen
Only months after moving into their newly constructed homes, Methuen residents discovered unearthed shards of glass and pieces of corroded metal throughout their yards. The debris had shifted up through the topsoil used by local contractor, Carmen Toscano, to hide the remains of an auto junkyard. Residents fear the site is also contaminated with hazardous chemicals such as battery acids and motor oil. The DEP is currently conducting tests to see if the site poses an imminent hazard due to chemical contamination. The residents are demanding Toscano, who is claiming bankruptcy, take responsibility for the polluted properties.

7. Brittany Dye, New Bedford
Brittany Dye's soot and noxious odors are just some of the public health threats and discomforts facing the small New Bedford neighborhood located next door. While the state investigates a potential cancer cluster in the neighborhood, the Department of Environmental Protection has refused to consider the cumulative impacts of Brittany Dye's operations with the company next door, Rodney Metals, a recipient of a 2000 Dirty Dozen Award. Residents are asking that the state lower allowable emissions from both companies to account for their cumulative impacts.

8. Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, Plymouth
In the wake of September 11th, Americans have been warned of an impending second terrorist attack, yet little has been done to prevent a disastrous attack aimed at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Pilgrim contains more than a 1,000 times the radiation levels of a Hiroshima-sized bomb and an attack could result in over 100,000 deaths within a year of the accident. Residents are asking the Governor to temporarily close the plant until adequate safety measures are taken.

9. Quarry Hills Recreational Complex, Quincy/Milton
Over the past decade, more than 10 million tons of Big Dig fill has been used to cap the Quincy and Milton landfills. Quarry Hills Associates (QHA) is building a 27-hole golf course and ball fields on the site. Despite agreements to cover the fill with topsoil, QHA has covered the Milton side with a mix of sewage and paper mill sludge containing hundreds of toxic chemicals ranging from dioxin to lead. Not only does the sludge stink, but it has also run off the property into wetlands, streams, yards, streets and basements. Residents want Quincy officials to uphold their position not to allow sludge spreading on the Quincy part of the property.

10. Orchard Park Housing Development Demolition Pile, Roxbury
This pile of boards, bricks, metal pipes, and dirt left over from the demolition of Orchard Park Housing Development, is suspected of containing asbestos and lead. Consistent exposure to asbestos can cause lung cancer, lead dust can cause developmental problems and can act as an asthma trigger. Residents are demanding that the demolition pile be removed and the exposed area cleaned of contamination.

11. Aggregate Industries, Swampscott
Large trucks, laden with quarried debris, barrel through Swampscott six days a week at a rate of about one every two minutes, covering homes and streets with dust and clouds of diesel fuel. Five residential properties that abut the property of Aggregate Industries were contaminated with MTBE, a toxic chemical found in petroleum products. Residents are calling upon the government to use their authority to investigate and regulate the quarry to protect the public health and the environment.

12. Winchendon Landfill Expansion, Winchendon
Winchendon is proposing to expand its historically toxic and mismanaged landfill. Now classified as a Massachusetts Superfund site, cis-1, 2-diclorethane has been found in fractured bedrock below the landfill. A chemical plume containing toluene has migrated from the landfill into the nearby Millers River. Vinyl chloride and high levels of methane have been detected in the test wells around the landfill. Residents are upset with the management of the landfill and are adamantly opposing its expansion.