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Local Companies Called "Dirty"
December 2, 2003 - MetroWest Daily News

By Michael Kunzelman, News Staff Writer

BOSTON - A Framingham sand and gravel pit and a Westborough trash hauler are among the state's worst polluters and pose a serious threat to public health, an environmental watchdog said yesterday. New England Sand and Gravel of Framingham and E.L. Harvey & Sons of Westborough are included on the Toxics Action Center's annual "Dirty Dozen" list of top polluters released by the group yesterday.

The center, affiliated with the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, also chided the state Department of Conservation and Recreation for approving a plan to use a toxic herbicide to control weeds at Lake Cochituate in Natick.

"They've all distinguished themselves over the years as posing a threat to the public health or the environment in the commonwealth," Matthew Wilson, the center's director, said of the 12 "winners" of the Dirty Dozen awards.

E.L. Harvey & Sons was singled out for having a "long history of environmental contamination," the center said.  According to the center, test wells near the company's unlined landfill went unmonitored for a decade.

Meanwhile, the group said, recent tests on the Harvey property revealed high levels of benzene, chlorinated hydrocarbons and pH in area groundwater. "E.L. Harvey and Sons is seeking approval to expand operations of their facility," the center said in a written statement. "The Cedar Swamp Conservation Trust is fighting to stop (its) expansion and ensure comprehensive assessment and cleanup of current contamination at the site."

Stephen Richmond, an attorney who represents E.L. Harvey & Sons, said the center jumped to a one-sided conclusion about the company's environmental track record and its plan to build a recycling center.
"This is really about a small group of neighbors who want to stop the construction of the recycling center," he said. "These few opponents simply don't want a recycling center built across from their big homes."

The center's panel of environmental professionals and public health experts also picked New England Sand and Gravel for the award, accusing the company of having a history of polluting dating back 65 years. The group claims the Danforth Road property, which sits atop "one of the most productive underground water supplies in the state," is contaminated by underground storage tanks. "In addition," the center wrote, "the largest housing development in Framingham history is proposed for the site, which would further compromise the area and restrict cleanup activities of the toxic contamination."

Tom Generazio, a company employee whose brothers own New England Sand and Gravel, said the state inspected the property earlier this year and concluded that it was a "clean site."  "The group doing this is nothing more than a scare group," he said of the center. "They're saying this is a toxic site? That's not true. If we were polluters, we would have been cited by the state. And we never have. Never."

The Dirty Dozen list also includes Aquatic Control Technology and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, which approved a plan to use the toxic herbicide Diquat Bromide to kill milfoil weeds on 52 acres of Lake Cochituate.  Aquatic Control Technology was hired by the state to carry out the plan, which the Natick Board of Health concluded could pose a health threat to the town's main water supply. 

Felix Browne, a spokesman for the department, said the state is eyeing "alternative methods" for controlling the weeds in the absence of using the pesticide. "There are no known health risks associated with this specific chemical," Browne added. "All of the scientific evidence we have indicates that the value to the lake would outweigh the (risks) of spraying the herbicide."

This is the seventh year that the center has handed out the Dirty Dozen awards. Yesterday's recipients also included a toxic dump in South Weymouth, a Brockton landfill and TruGreen Chemlawn, for "peddling pesticides on unsuspecting consumers' lawns."

Representatives of the Environmental League of Massachusetts, the Sierra Club, Boston University's School of Public Health and the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition were among the panelists who picked the award winners.

The Toxics Action Center, founded in 1987, said it has helped more than 475 neighborhood groups address toxic and environmental health problems in their communities.
 

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