Rail Trail Public Meeting regarding the contaminated soil

Event Date: 
Thursday, September 28, 2017 - 7:00pm

Address

Auditorium
60 Pleasant Street
Newburyport, MA 01950
United States

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                               

Contact: Geordie Vining, Senior Project Manager, (978) 465-4400

PUBLIC MEETING scheduled regarding the contaminated SOIL in part of the clipper City rail trail Phase II corridor

Newburyport – The City of Newburyport will host a public meeting on Thursday September 28, 2017 at 7:00pm at the City Hall auditorium to discuss the status of the soil contamination and the anticipated environmental cleanup of the fenced section of the Clipper City Rail Trail Phase II corridor behind the Wastewater Treatment Facility. 

Earlier this year, the contractor found some soil contamination in a portion of the old rail corridor along the shoreline and the City had to fence off the area in compliance with federal and state regulatory requirements while it develops the remediation approach.  All railroad corridors are assumed to have some level of contaminants, and, although previous testing did not reveal any contamination considered to be a risk, it is not uncommon to find more contaminants during development of rail trails.  The source of the PCB’s is presumed to be old railroad operations.  Working in close collaboration with MassDOT, the City has hired a Licensed Site Professional (LSP) to manage further assessment, provide reports to the federal and state regulatory authorities, and develop a remediation plan.  MassDOT is helping fund assessment and remediation of this site, and the City also secured some additional grant funding from the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Brownfields Program to help support the cleanup of this area.  The contractor is currently mobilizing to conduct additional soil sampling to fill in data gaps and better characterize the nature and extent of the soil contamination in order to fully develop the remediation cleanup plan.  The City’s LSP has analyzed several remediation alternatives and has developed a preferred approach.

The additional sampling will be conducted and analyzed this fall, and a final remediation plan for both removal and capping of soil will be developed by the consultants this winter to be implemented by the contractor along with final construction of this section of rail trail in the spring of 2018.   This section will remain fenced off to the public until remediation is complete.

For more information, Geordie Vining, Senior Project Manager in Newburyport’s Planning Office, can be reached at (978) 465-4400.

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