Shpack landfill, 26 years l~ter
MIKI)_ GJ;ORGE I THE SUN C_HRONICLE survivor Mary Soper of Norton. who lives near the nates in the landfill. which sits on the .li' Jifo~-Attleboro line. C~an~p Shpack landfill, believes she became ill !:J ecause of the contami-· of the site is schedUled to get under .;;~y this month. ·
200.le Shpack_Landfill_08 .08_ 0127_ a In shadow of Shpack For neighbors, legacy of toxic waste a concern
BY REBECCA KEISTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
NORTON ary Soper, who grew up in the shadow of •• the Shpack landfill, says the legacy and M continuing fight for money· to clean up the toxic dump is always a thought, a concern and a reminder of the dangers of public unawareness. Soper is a ~urv i vor KEITH NORDSTROM I THE SUN CHRONICLE 'This is who lived on ~treet Aerial view shows the former Shpack dump, center, on the Attleboro-Norton li ne. . supposed to about a half-mile away from · be a public Shpack, which, steeped in radiological and chemical Cleanup faces obstacles health issue.' wastes, has been on the fed eral Superfund List for two Mary Soper, decades. ~ Superfund si t ~ has lengthy history, uncertain future Shpack neighbor But for Ana Mahoney, who BY SUSAN LaHOUD _. ~neighbor on DETAILS on how the cleanup will get under ~bou t 2 miles SUN CHRONICLE STAFF way; also. a timeline of Shpack. PAGE AS from the former landfill, Shpack is a new word. · ~ I'm hoping this is far enough away," Mahoney Ronald Reagan was in the White That's about to change, but there are s aid. ~ r have a big problem with that, and I don 't House, Larry Bird was propelling the still plenty of roadblocks ahead. • even think people a re aware of such things." Celtics to their last NBA championship The la ndfill on the Norton-Attleboro, Soper and·others who have been engaged in a and the Great Woods Center for the Per line was ~ssig fled to the Envirotpnental hands-on fight to have Shpack cleaned up, say forming Arts was about to open to critical ProtectioiF ; Agency's S1Jperfun
Less; expensive ,-·,,.g~~-.;gency had favored a . less.;-~t~nsive''i option· '.that .incl\l~ecl :-.partiaL removal of Bureaucratic_ changes, . <:~~tainiriants ·and capping the internecine ,squabbles among rest. : ,' ,.. '• ' ; agencies; iriadequate staffing . The intent of the town and and · funding, ·· ·along with the. more. expensive plan is to Shpack's low' rankirig on the restore the Shpack site to limd . EPA's priority list because it suitable for passive recreation. · The agreement in 2004 calls ,, wasn't considered an imminent ii" health threat all have. con for wetlands · to be· restored 'or -tt-.··. tributed to delays. replicated' and ciean' fill to be "'¥' Because of its low .priority, used to b'ring excavation of the Paula Fitzsimmons, EPA's· for-_ site up to grade.·· ··mer . project manager, for··. , . Water liries will be_extended Shpack, told a gathering , in to. two. homes adjacent to the, . 1990: "You have toJooka.thow site that c\irrently have private long it took to get thcitwa:y.IfiL wells. . · · · took 40 years to creat~, it won't. Institutional controls are to I' be cleaned up overriighV, ...·.··. · be put iri place to restrict It was m.2000,:''-~ter work, future Use of tlle property and was held up again ori the site's · groundwater. · · · · assessment, tha~ former. Nor Excavation work started in .·· ton Selectman· William.' Gou ~e· summer. will· continue until veia said: "I'm going to have:·. May or Juri~, a~ which time, .if two things written on mytoi:nb there is no funcijllg, the project stone - I never s~w the Red·. will ~e shut down tintil May or Sox win the World Series and I . J:w;1¢,pf .. 2007,'-~~aid.Tim, Beau, never saw the Shpa:ck 'laiid,fill che~/ -·the '~ coips·· '- project 1 cleaned up." · . . . · . .··. .· . ~~ger for. the Shpack site.: The Sox, of coilrse, won the . ·~·~we· li8.ve' asked for $3 mil series in 2004 - after 86 years lion .for fiscal year '07. and $17 - and Gouveia has since ~on for fiscal. year '08,'' he amended his earlier lament. said. . ·· . "That's one down and prob _j. Bcilucqezpin ,said. it is' not ably 40 years to go on Shpack. unus~a(in Ul~se cypes ·,of" pro But I've made 'it this· far, ·so · jectS':'to find more containi maybe there's a chance," he nants;tli~n' anticipated; •. :.•.. ' i ' said. "I've lived· to see ·one; ."These :;types of conb1iru maybe I'll live to see the· ~ts ' are liard to find \vith other." boreholeS. vo·u really ha~e to The turning point, spurred dig," he said. by the intervention of U.S. Rep. Complicating the project is Barney Frank, D-Newton, the timing, lin'lited availability whose district includes Norton, of funds and the competition carne in 2004, when the. EPA ·with other cleanup projects agreed to a $43 riilllion plan for across the country. . . a total cleanup of Shpack that : .The CorJ)s · :has proceeded included the removal of about ·quickly, once it got to work, 35,000 cubic yards of contami Beauchemin . said, but he nated soil and sEidiment. · acknowledges ' the length of time it, has taken to. get the cle~up on track.is "up there." · No one has to tell that to Selectmen Chairlnan Bob Kim ball or anyoml :~lSe' ill' toWn who has h.a.<;l ~y;iJlvolvement in.the•· . proje~t~}:·~•i:: ·.. >.'·., 'You have to look at how long it took to get that way. If It took 40 years to cre "It's been a. long road and lots of. people . involved and, ate, It won't be more meeti.I,lgs ·· than I can cleaned up count". he •said. "It's 'taken a long tinle for· us ta get here. ·· overnight.' · "We 'jus't want to see the I,, diutm thing done." Paula Fitzsimmons, EPA, Activist Heather Graf, who . in 1990 has spent years on a commit- · tee representing local interests ... in the project, echoes some of Kimball's sentiments. the Shpack property in the "It's· been very painful and 1980s · in the vain hope that very frustrating," she said. would speed up the project. "When you consider how "Things pretty much long it's already gone on, and dragged along after that," he the n:wnber of agencies that said. have come and gone . .. Any The project picked up speed time there's a stop, it makes when Frank intervened "and me crazy," she said. "And I got all of the parties in the guess . I'll be going crazy same room," he said. "It picked again." up momentum." · . · Still,- Graf said the fact that News that additional conta ·some excavatiOn ·has already minants have been found ~as . taken 'place. and that conta~i added another layer of frustra nants finally will be movmg tion J but Kimball.. said it really off-site. this. month is "some came as no surprise. . kind of pro~~s." ... "We're not optimistic that "'l;!ley're?actua~y going to we're going to be able to con take 1sorriething out of there," tinue the cleanup process with she.said. .. out having to take a break for a year," Kimball said. · But, he believes that will not be the end of the project and that the government will, indeed, finish what it has start ed. .B f;l(:~QIJg · t~.rti- < · It .. ···.·. . (\! on······shm.·cr<•·~u·mp THE SHPACK DUMP'i~arfiacre abandoned dom~stic arid industrial landfill that operated frqm'i946'to 1965 on Union Road ir:CNorton and Peckham Street In Attleboro. THEJ)UMP <;onsistsof_!and formerly owned by Lea and lsadqre Shpack ··. which is now ownedby the ~own of Norton .cmd .I and formerly owned. by Alb.ert ·buinqnfa'ri~~~ow·own~d:bY.... ·•. Attlebor6;Landfill inc~ Mosfof the· · dump ls•iocatecl in'NOrtdri: • .• IN 19ss; ttie.site wa~ listed. on the. Nationai·Priorlty Ustand tt\e EPA signed an administrative order by ,, consent:in September 1~90.with a group of parties including a number cif.local companies such as Texas lnstru'mer\tsto'pert6rm:remedial iiwestigation and a feasibi'lity study. The initial phase of investigation has been completed. · THE CONTAMINANTS that have been of primary concern inglude.radioactive compounds, volatile organic com pounds and heavy metals:Jhe ' volatile organic compounds most often deteCted are dichloroetherie ~~~~c~~~~~t6~~~}§qWa~~.~~avy Slteinclyqe ~lnC;'eqp~r; chromium, T~.~.~~J'~~,~~f·:W£~1~·~~~~~ .com- ·pourids'are:ra'qium···aiid uranium. An investigation byth~ Nuclear Regul~ tory commissiOn)eterrnined that · the forme{M ,&C';Nuf)~ar•,·lnc. of Attlebor(> (noWJel;(ci~lnstruments), dispos.ed 6t yash~arid other mated, ais,. inciudihizirco~iurii. ashes:' ,· :·.·· associated with nucleiu fuel opera tions condufted from 1957 to 1965 at the Shpack site; THE GENERAL PLATE DIVISION of M & c began to fabricate, enriched ura nium foils at this facility in.1952.1n · 1959, they merged with Tl which continued operations at the site using enriched and nat\mil uranillm for the fabrication of nuclear fuel for the U.S. Na\ty .C3nd commercial CUS' tomers from :u159.-1981. Fabrica tion and associated activities were conducted on the Attleboro site ·. · under contractto the Atomic Energy Commission and later,.under NRC license. Source: Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. and Massachusetts· Environmental · · Protection Agencies, · ·No more delays ~"' (1\..,ro 11 \ ·~..t ~1\ J o · ~ at Shpack site r~· c.. ·· EDITORIAL . - Local jewelry factories were In 2002, former Norton Select identified as having dumped man William Gouveia said: "I'm chemicals from their manufac It will be the first time since going to have two things written turing processes. A former Nor 1980 that contamfnants have on my tombstone - I never saw ton selectman said that the been excavated and · ~01oved off the Red Sox win the World property was a common dump-· the site, which is marking its Series, and I never saw the ing site for many businesses and 20th year on the Superfund site Shpack landfill cleaned up." individuals during the 1960s. list this June. Ironically, June Well, miracles of miracles, The federal government pur will also likely be when the pro the Red Sox did win the World chased the property, which by ject is shut down - officials esti Series. But you can't blame then had been sold to another mate for about a year - until Gouveia , neighbors of the land family, and fenced it off in 1981. additional funding is obtained. fill and the entire town of Nor Test drillings indicated that, Neighbors have every right to ton for being frustrated by the because of the nature of the be outraged. Since the wastes lack of success in getting the wastes, nearby wells or ground were first found: radioactive dump cleaned up water were not threatened. ..,. The United States has been nearly three decades after it More tests were needed, the through five presidents. was first identified. government experts said, and ..,. Massachusetts has been In short, the cleanup - which plenty of money was needed to through six governors. is scheduled to begin this month pay for the cleanup. The Shpack ..,. The U.S. was friendly with but faces another year's delay site was placed on the federal Iraq as it battled terrorism in due to lack of funding - has government's Superfund list Iran. been an embarrassment to all where it would receive funding ..,. Communism fell. government agencies involved. for the cleanup. ..,. Computers and cell phones Back- in 1978 John Sullivan, a For nearly a quarter of a cen became a part of our daily life. young resident with a tury, that's been the status quo ..,. Britney Spears, Jessica penchant for science, took a for the Shpack site. There have Simpson and the Olson twins Geiger counter to the property been various attempts to get suf were all born. owned by Mrs. Isadore Shpack ficient funding, to find a spot to ..,. The Patriots played in five after hearing that radioactive dispose of the wastes and to con Super Bowls, winning three. wastes had been dumped at the duct studies to see what effect We w-ge local and state offi property. moving the wastes· will have. cials to join Congressman Frank The Geiger counter proved Congressman Barney Frank, in pushing to make sure the him correct. An investigation in particular, has shown a deter delays at Shpack do not last was launched, and a host of mined effort to get the project longer than a year. This cleanup local, state and federal officials moving. However, radioactive is overdue by at least a decade, concluded that radioactive and materials remain underground, threatening the health of a chemical wastes were buried a constant threat to the Chartley neighborhood. there. neighborhood, as the work The Red Sox winning the Metals & Controls, a predeces remains bogged down in the fed World Series may have taken a sor to Attleboro manufacturer eral btrreaucracy. miracle, but this project should Texas Instruments, was believed Between 4,000 and 5,000 cubic not. It takes only the federal gov to have disposed of uranium yards of radioactive contami ernment's determination to get it there in the 1950s and '60s . Much nants packed into 10-ton bags is done. of that radioactive waste is tentatively scheduled to be And that way, William Gou believed to come from Metals & trucked out of the eight-acre site veia's tombstone won 't contain Controls' contracts with the fed starting Feb. 16. two legacies of failure. eral Atomic Energy Commission.