Rocco's Landfill cleanup reveals new contamination           4/14/01
by Mark Nichols  Lowell Sun Staff Writer
    Federal and state environmental officials updated Tewksbury and Wilmington residents on th cleanup of three areas considered part of Rocco's Dump.
   Though White House officials placed a moratorium on listing new sites on the Superfund List Rocco's remains close to achieving that status.
   After nearly 12 months of assessment and preliminary disposal of drums and contaminated soil, a lot of work remains to be done. Gary Lipsom, on-site coordinator for the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),said approximately 25,000 tons of contaminated soil have been removed. Along with that soil, more than 100 drums were over-wrapped and loaded into roll-off boxes and shipped to disposal and treatment facilities in Loudon, N.H. and New York state. He said the agency is considering shipping some of the waste to Canada where disposal costs are one-third those in the United States.
   Part of the problem state and federal agencies found was high levels  of  toxic  compounds. Loudon could not accept waste with PCB levels. Five organic compounds were found. The highest were ethylbenzene, with 18,000 per million, and xylenes and toluene, with 17,000. Those are considered volatile compounds. Two semi-volatile compounds identified in the soils were phenol, with 1,240 parts per million and bis-phthalate, with 7,690 parts per million.
   "In the past month we began moving it off-site," said Lipsom."We do not know how long the drums have been there. There was nothing legible on the drums."
   What Lipsom and his crew discovered was more than they expected. That necessitated Lipsom going to his superiors at the EPA and getting additional mone allocated for the preliminary cleanup. The current cost ceiling was raised from $725,000 t $1.734 million.
   "Money is real tight for the agency," said Lipsom. "I don't know what that means for the second pile of waste. We will not leave it there."
   In Wilmington, the Kounagenis family pays for the work on McDonald Road. The EPA and state Department  of Environment Protection (DEP) pay the bill for cleaning the other two identified contaminated areas.
   In the interim, the EPA and DEP are trying to identify possibe responsible parties from those who used the landfill during its    opertional phase or those who paid disposal companies to pick up their trash. Lipsom wrote in the pollution reports for the area that    the agency notified potential responible parties of the cleanup. Those parties will be asked for money to offset the cleanup costs.
That second pile of waste nearly 100 feet long and has an estimated removal cost of $1 million. The agencies are exploring where to take the pile because of it's classification as hazardous waste due to the levels of contamination.
   However, more potential problems await the agency. Lipsom told the 30 meeting attendees that second area at the Wilmington     disposal area near Krochmal Farm will be excavated in March.
   DEP, engineer Dick Chalpin said his agency has the primary job of the removing the source of the contamination at the site. After that, testing occurs to determine what is left at the site. The big question on many minds is whether enough residual contamination exists in the water for additional work.
   Several residents asked Tewksbury Health Director Thomas Carbone about the possibility that their tap water was contaminated by the water line breaks which occurred in the past year. Carbone told the Advocate that is not the case.
   "I talked with Dick Westaway and George DeRoche from the Water Department about the other potential routes of contamination," Carbone said. "The vast majority of the breaks have occurred upstream. When the lines do break, they shut off the water both up and downstream. Once that occurs, all the water drains back into the hole and if there is contamination in the pipe it all gets drained out. The second thing is they do flush the line upstream once they connect the pipe to make sure there is nothing in he pipe. Basically, they are flushng it for the quality of the water."
 

Buisnesses want former dump land               4/14/01
Development of area near possibility 
by Mark Nichols Lowell Sun Staff Writer
In an interview Monday, Town Manager David Cressman said he met with the EPA to discuss developments which could result in a less expensive cleanup of Rocco's Dump. He said it was not about a development plan, but about progress towards cleaning up the site
   Cressman said he has met with two unnamed business entities about developing an area near or on the proposed dump. He has not specified where exactly the potential site may be.
    "I do not want to specify who because they have asked not to be singled out," said Cressman.
     He  called  the  companies  involved after receiving calls at his Town Hall office requesting comment about Fittery's claims which were made during a meeting at the Trahan School on Salem Road in Tewksbury on Feb. 7. EPA and state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) officials convened the meeting to update residents and other interested parties about the preliminary site assessment and cleanup performed by the two environmental agencies.
    Cressman said a few responsible parties were notified during this period about their financial responsibility for the cleanup.
    Selectman Joseph Gill said the town has not been notified recently that it is a responsible party for the cleanup.However, he said during previous attempts to clean the site or get state and federal help to do it, officials told the town it was one of the responsible parties.
   Gill said the board is out of the loop when it comes to updates on the site. When asked why, he said the board has not been given any concrete plans for developing the site in part or in whole. He and Selectman  Chairman  Charles Coldwell  said Cressman has the right to meet with interested parties about proposals for the Rocco's site. However, when a concrete idea is ready for presentation then the board involves itself in the process.
   "He has no directive from the selectmen," said Gill about Cressman discussing the site with private industry.
   He said Cressman is the manager and he should field questions and have discussions with people about relocating to Tewksbury.
   CoIdwell agreed. He said the board is not too involved in the discussions to this point. Members get much of their information from residents and the press who report potential development.
   "It is a very, very touchy subject that is at the forefront finally," said Coldwell.
    He reiterated that any discussions about Rocco's will occur with the input of residents and after complete asessment of the proposal.  

Cleanup begins at Wilmington waste site         5/20/00
By JULIE MEHEGAN Lowell Sun Staff

WILMINGTON — After a year of investigation, crews this week will begin digging up and removing the first of hundreds of hazardous 55-gallon drums discovered buried near the Wilmington-Tewksbury line.
   A cleanup company hired by the Environmental Protection Agency has hauled its equipment into a dumping area in Wilmington known as the "pumpkin patch," on property not far from the Rocco Landfill in Tewksbury, and will remove about 150 drums and contaminated soil over the next four to six weeks, said EPA engineer Gary Lipson.
   Work will begin on another contaminated site next week, when a contractor begins removing barrels on a site off the end of McDonald Road in Wilmington, and more drums are expected to be removed from Rocco Landfill later this summer.
    Since a wide-ranging investigation of the area began last year, state and federal environmental officials have found a total of about 500 decayed drums on the pumpkin patch, the property off McDonald Road, and the Rocco landfill.
   The removal of the drums is the first step in an effort to eliminate the source of continuing water and soil contamination in the area. Neighbors have blamed the contamination for their ongoing health problems.The barrels are located on about a half-acre of land, Lipson said.
   IT Technology of Hopkinton was on that site doing preparatory work yesterday, and will begin excavation today. After clearing brush and trees from the areas where they will be digging, and setting up work trailers and staging equipment, the crews will begin digging up the barrels.
   They will use an excavator, a front-end loader, "sensing equipment" to separate contaminated from clean areas, and personal protective equipment for work crews, including oxygen bottles.
"Since it's unknown hazardous materials right now, we've got to deal with supplied air," Lipson said.
   Crews are expecting to find drums in various conditions - some with their contents 'intact, others crushed and empty with their contents spilled into the ground, Lipson said. Officials are unsure what substances the drums hold.
   The crews are also setting up hay bales and taking other steps to protect nearby wetlands.
Lipson said excavation in the area of the pumpkin patch poses little threat to neighbors since the property is far away from homes. When work begins off McDonald Road next week, however, measures will be taken to protect the congested area of homes nearby.
EPA officials are meeting with neighbors of the McDonald Road site tonight to discuss those steps.
   The EPA is relying on $1.5 million in federal funds to begin removal of the drums on the Wilmington site and the Rocco Landfill. The owner of the property off McDonald Road, John Kunigenas, has entered into an agreement with the state Department of Environmental Protection to clean up the 52-acre site.
   Judith Fittery of Bemis Circle in Tewksbury said she is pleased work is finally getting under way in the area, though she acknowledges it might be years before the site is considered clean.
   "Anything that they can get out of there is less that we have to contend with right now," said Fittery, who blames her health problems on the contamination and has been an outspoken advocate for removing the drums.
   Fittery said she is confident the EPA is taking necessary precautions in removing drums and contanimated soil.
  "But you cannot ever erase the total aspect of the fear, especially where so many of us have been sick," she said.
   Rocco Landfill is expected to be listed as a federal Superfund site this summer, making it eligible for more federal assistance for long-term cleanup.
   As the EPA begins removing barrels in Wilmington this week, crews from the state Department of Environmental Protection have also returned to the sites to further investigate the extent of the contamination.

 Toxic Waste Drums Buried at Landfill in Tewksbury    5/27/99
Lowell Sun

  Several hazardous waste drums have been found at Rocco's Landfill, a sign that the vast dump is contaminated with toxic chemicals underground for years.
   Although 10 barrels of hazardous waste have been discovered, they still remain buried, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
   It is uncertain whether the 55-gallon barrels were empty or still contained chemicals , but soil around the specific area was determined to be contaminated, according to the EPA.
   "This is still a DEP site," said Gary Lipson, an EPA employee handling the site."There clearly needs to be more work done before the removal.
   Acting on an informants tip, the DEP over the last week embarked on a massive digging effort in several areas in and around the 100+ acre landfill.
    Before the week was over 10 crushed drums were uncovered.
   "They contained VOC's (volatile organic compounds)," Lipson said."Theres been so much (trash) dumping there, so this will be so huge a project."
   Lipson said the drums were found about a tenth of a mile from a house at the entrance to the dump that was once occupied by the Rocco family.
   "Anybody who who has lived here long enough knows the place took the stuff that other dumps wouldn't." said George Flibotte in a July 1994 Sun article.
   Steve Johnson of the DEP said "The barrels were found late last week."When a reporter visited the site Friday at noon, Michael Rostowski, also of the DEP said nothing was uncovered yet.
   At the time of the visit, a truck from Clean Harbors Environmental Services could be seen at the closed but uncapped landfill.Clean Harbors deals in cleaning up hazardous chemicals.
    The news comes as no surprise to residents who have waited roughly  ten years for a clean-up.
   "Now we can finally deal with reality instead of folklore," said Judy Fittery, who lives a few hundred yards from where the drums were uncovered."It really irritates me to have to hear this from Washington instead of the DEP."
   Fittery heard the news from the Natural Resources News Service, a Washington DC based firm that works to increase media coverage of environmental issues.
   Johnson said Tuesday that a press release on the matter would be distributed yesterday.However, no release was made available, and attempts to reach him were unsucessful.
   The finding could be a precursor to a comprehensive site assessment that expands on an earlier, detailed study done by Metcalf and Eddy, said Thomas Carbone, the town's Health director.
   "There's debate over whether to clean this up, or to search for the rest of what might be there," he said.
   Walter Rocco, the son of the landfills legal owner, Jeanette Rocco, refused comment, hanging up when reached by phone last night.
   Roccos was used by several trash haulers-and by the town temporarily- as a dump from the late 50's to the early 90's.The dump stayed open despite several court orders to shut it down as early as 1982.