NEWBURYPORT - The state has ordered the Newburyport Redevelopment Authority to clean up lead found in 1997 on its downtown waterfront land, or risk paying hefty fines.
The NRA, a five-member public board that for 39 years has owned the waterfront land known as the "dirt lots," is currently working on a plan to redevelop the land into a park and parking lots. There's about 420 parking spaces on the land now; a conceptual plan shows 240 spaces with an expanded park.
Tests performed on the land in 1997 found high levels of lead, and state regulations require additional soil testing and cleanup to be performed within one to three years. Those dates came and went with no action taken, leaving past and present NRA board members to explain how such an oversight could have occurred and to ponder how they will pay for the costly cleanup.
This strikes me as potentially high hurdle for any work being done on the waterfront. I know a great deal depends on the severity of the contamination, but I'd have to think that the contamination is pretty extensive giving the history of the water front.
To quote childhood hero Han Solo, "I've got a bad feeling about this."
1 comment:
Six inches of clay, six inches of top soil, cap it all...voila...a park!
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