Athenæum

Previous entry | Next entry

07/19/2005: ::Urban Archaeology

Sawin's Pond To Be Tested
from The Watertown TAB & Press

In recent weeks, Maximos Hatzilliades has shown increasing interest in working with officials in coming to a solution about what to do with Sawins and Williams Ponds. Hatzilliades has owned the ponds since 1984. This new testing will encompass the entire site, which no study has done before. Please stay tuned for further information about this study as it unfolds.

Pond to get tested for pollutants
By Dan Atkinson/ Staff Writer
Friday, July 15, 2005

Watertown residents have 10 days left to publicly comment on a proposed plan to test Sawins Pond for pollution, an early step in the potential cleanup of the site.

"It's been completely logjammed for years," said Susan Falkoff, town councilor and Watertown Citizens for Environmental Health member. "Any movement is a good sign at this point."

The examination will be done by Waltham-based Action Environmental, and will not include testing for contaminants previously shown not to be in the pond, according to project coordinator Bob Houghton. But the public can comment on the proposal, available at the Watertown Public Library's temporary location in the Phillips School, and make testing suggestions. Maximos Hatziiliades, the site's owner who commissioned the testing, was in Greece and unavailable for comment.

"We'll try to address all the public concerns we can," Houghton said.

Sawins Pond has been considered polluted for years, but the extent of the damage has been in dispute. A transformer leak in 1983 sent 1,000 gallons of polychlorinated biphenyl, a carcinogen also known as PCB, through the pond. The East End site was also near several industrial buildings, including B.F. Goodrich and the original Army Arsenal.

The Phase II examination was preceded by a Phase I identification of the site as contaminated in 1996 by the Department of Environmental Protection. During Phase II, site owners evaluate the extent of the contamination before moving to Phase III, proposing a cleanup plan. Phases IV and V involve actually cleaning up the site. Evaluating the site will take up to a year, Houghton said.

Under the current proposal, Action Environmental will examine the pond's soil, sediment and water for PCBs; extractable petroleum hydrocarbons; volatile organic compounds, or compounds that easily become gases; and pollutant metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead. While there have been several studies of Sawins Pond since Hatziiliades became its owner in 1984, none of them have encompassed the entire site, Houghton said.

"[Testing] hasn't been done in all the areas necessary to define all contamination, or show where the worst contaminations have been," he said.

Houghton said the site should be compliant with the Massachusetts Contingency Plan, which contains the state's guidelines for site cleanup, in a year. However, the plan only requires no substantial and imminent risk, he said, and does not mean the pollution has actually been addressed yet.

"It doesn't say there's no significant risk if exposure [to the site] is allowed," he said.

Dan Atkinson can be reached at datkinso@cnc.com.