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MassDEP News Briefs Focus on Assisting at the Danvers Blast, Recycling on the MBTA, Big Dig Transit Commitments, Transitions and Awards
Environmental Response In Danvers: MassDEP emergency responders helped play a key role in the aftermath of the chemical company explosion in Danversport during the early morning of November 22, conducting air and water sampling to check for chemical contamination. A massive blast from the CAI, Inc. and Arnel Company site caused a massive fire, sent volatile chemicals into the air and into the nearby rivers, and damaged up to 70 nearby homes. MassDEP On-Scene Coordinator John Fitzgerald and the ER staff conducted down-wind air samples that morning, and determined that the chemicals burned off by the fire were not impacting a nearby neighborhood. Samples from the nearby Waters and Danvers rivers showed that low amounts of volatiles and solvents had drained off the site. EPA Region 1 has taken environmental control of the site - with assistance from MassDEP - and continues to check air quality, while drums and tanks of chemicals are safely removed from the blast zone. MassDEP has also provided assistance with asbestos inspections in the damaged homes, and with the handling of the debris from the razed homes. For updated information on the Danvers blast site, turn to: www.epa.gov/ne/danvers.
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| A massive blast and fire completely leveled two chemical companies on this Danversport site early November 22, and severely damaged 70 nearby homes. All that was left of CAI, Inc. and the Arnel Companies was burnt, twisted metal and chemical drums. |
America Recycles Day: MassDEP celebrated America Recycles Day November 15 by supporting recycling efforts on the MBTA system and at the Statehouse. Acting Commissioner Arleen O'Donnell joined MBTA General Manager Dan Grabauskas and Jim Hunt from the City of Boston to unveil new paper recycling bins on the platforms at major commuter train stations such as North Station and Back Bay. The bins will be added at stations throughout the transit system, hiking the recycling of newspaper, CharlieTickets and other paper. Despite recycling success in Massachusetts, we still throw out over 1.5 million tons of recyclable paper each year. If we recycled just half of this paper, we would save nearly $52 million in disposal costs. Later in the day, Commissioner O'Donnell joined Senator Pam Resor and Representative Frank Smizik at the Statehouse to promote the recycling of old cell phones. Nearly 100 retired wireless phones were collected and donated to help victims of domestic violence. To learn more about recycling, visit: www.earth911.org.
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Photo left: MassDEP Acting Commissioner Arleen O'Donnell is joined by Abitibi Consolidated Area Manager Jason Bean (left), MBTA General Manager Daniel Grabauskas, and City of Boston Environmental Chief James Hunt (right) on the North Station commuter rail platform to announce the placement of paper recycling bins within transit stations across the MBTA system.
Photo right: MassDEP Acting Commissioner Arleen O'Donnell (left) marked America Recycles Day at the Statehouse by assisting Rep. Frank Smizik and Sen. Pam Resor (right) in their efforts to recycle retired cell phones and donate them to domestic violence shelters. |
Big Dig Transit Commitments: The Commonwealth has reached an agreement with the Conservation Law Foundation that will move a list of planned public transit projects ahead. As part of the lawsuit settlement, state transportation officials have agreed to design a new tunnel connecting the Blue Line to the Red Line at Charles/MGH station. The agreement also guarantees that the MBTA will extend the Green Line to Somerville and Medford, add 1,000 parking spaces at commuter rail stations, add stops on the Fairmount commuter line in Roxbury, Mattapan and Dorchester, require the completion of the Greenbush commuter rail line from the South Shore, and complete the modernization and platform lengthening of the Blue Line, all as mitigation for the construction of the Big Dig through Boston. These projects will provide more air emission reductions than the projects initially agreed to in the early 1990s when the Big Dig was begun. The agreement sets interim and final deadlines for the design and completion of the projects.
New Secretary Named: Governor Deval Patrick has selected Ian Bowles as the new Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs, replacing Robert W. Golledge, Jr. Before becoming Secretary, Bowles was President and CEO of MassINC and publisher of CommonWealth magazine. He served in the Clinton Administration as Senior Director for Global Environmental Affairs at the National Security Council and as Associate Director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Golledge left the EOEA Secretary post to become country director in Ghana for the Peace Corps. Golledge had been commissioner of MassDEP for over three years before accepting the EOEA post last August. He had previously spent two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica. As country director, he will oversee 175 Peace Corps volunteers in the West African country. After attending late-January training in Washington, D.C., he will be moving to Ghana in late February with his wife and three children.
Regulator of the Year: Janine Commerford, assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Waste Site Cleanup, has been named "Regulator of the Year" by the License Site Professional Association at the 13th Annual Dinner Meeting in Westborough. The plaque lauded Janine for "effectively balancing the needs and objectives of government, the private sector and the environment."
MassDEP Debuts Brownfields Video: Boston hosted the 2006 national Brownfields Conference in November, and MassDEP joined MassDevelopment and the federal EPA Region 1 in hosting the conference, which drew nearly 6,000 waste site professionals and state officials from across the country. During the conference, MassDEP debuted a new video, entitled "The Massachusetts Brownfields Revolution: Building on History." The video focuses on the successful reuse and redevelopment of six brownfields sites: the new National Basketball Association Hall of Fame in Springfield; the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams; North Common riverfront park in Lawrence; the Cummings Center in Beverly; Sid Wainer & Son greenhouses in New Bedford; and the Kendall Square/Genzyme Project in Cambridge. Video clips from the video can be viewed at: www.mass.gov/dep/cleanup/brsuc.htm.
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Staffers Mark Baldi (left) and Andrew Loew (right) talked to a visitor to MassDEP's booth at the 2006 national Brownfields Conference in the Boston Convention Center. The conference saw the debut of MassDEP's video "Building on History: Brownfields in Massachusetts," which focused on statewide success stories. |
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