Medfield and DCAM have diverged in their views on how to clean up the Medfield State Hospital C&D area in and along the Charles River. Medfield’s State Hospital Reuse Committee (SHERC) does not feel that the C&D area requires the Immediate Response Action (IRA) that is pending, and that if any part of the C&D area does require an immediate response, it is at most, just the oil in the river, not the toxic dump landfill created by DMH along the river’s edge that has existed in and next to the river for decades. DCAM wants to basically cap that dump in place, whereas SHERC wants it dug out and safely stored on-site.
SHERC is expected to advise the Board of Selectmen at the next selectmen meeting on 9/6/11 that:
1. The oil in the river should not be capped at all this fall, and for the oil to just be removed next year, as DCAM says it now plans.
2. The toxic waste material in the C&D area should be removed where it exists below the groundwater line, in order to protect the town’s adjacent water supply (well #6) from leaching toxins, and
3. DCAM should construct storage for that removed toxic material on-site, just as DCAM did at Boston State Hospital for the asbestosis containing materials (ACM) there. DCAM has said it cannot remove and store on-site the materials in the C&D area because they are ACM.
DEP held a stakeholders meeting on 8/19/11 on DCAM’s proposed emergency clean up in and along the Charles River. After that meeting, DCAM submitted its suggested “minutes” of that meeting prepared by its paid consultant (who had not attended the meeting), which I posted last week. Below are links to the responses to date from three Medfield participants and the CRWA, correcting the mischaracterizations of the DCAM paid consultant. The Board of Selectmen will respond to DEP on 9/7/11.
John Thompson, SHERC Chair
Click to access 20110829-ohnthompson-mepa-drod-28-august-2011.pdf
Bill Massaro
https://medfield02052.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/20110826-wjm-drod-eea-14448-comment-ltr.doc
John Harney
https://medfield02052.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/20110826-0johnharney-lt-dep.doc
Charles River Watershed Association
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