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EPA Concludes Season’s Dredging of New Bedford Harbor Contaminated Sediment
Release Date: 12/01/2005
Contact Information:
Contact: David Deegan (deegan.dave@epa.gov), EPA Office of Public Affairs, (617) 918-1017
For Immediate Release: December 1, 2005; Release # dd051201
(New Bedford) – Last week EPA concluded the second season of full scale dredging of PCB-contaminated sediment in New Bedford Harbor.
This latest dredging effort started in Sept. 2005, focussing on an area just south of the former Aerovox facility. Approximately 8 acres of sediment was dredged this year, resulting in the removal of 25,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment. Dredging activities will resume again in Fall 2006.
The dredged material was pumped directly into a floating pipeline connecting the dredge to EPA’s desanding building located at Sawyer Street, approximately one mile south of the dredged area. Booster pumps, located along the shoreline, helped pump the dredged sediment through the floating pipeline to the desanding facility.
At the desanding facility, coarse material was separated from the finer sediment producing a total of 2,300 tons of sand. A submerged pipeline carried the remaining sediment another 1.4 miles south to the newly constructed dewatering facility at Hervey Tichon Avenue and Herman Melville Boulevard. At the dewatering facility, specialized presses squeezed the excess water out of the dredged sediment. About 16,000 tons of dewatered sediment was transported off-site by train or truck and disposed of in a licensed PCB-landfill in Michigan. This season marked the first use of rail in transporting the dewatered sediment. Approximately 20,000,000 gallons of water was treated to stringent standards and then discharged back into the harbor.
In addition to the two seasons of full-scale harbor dredging, many other areas of PCB contaminated harbor sediment have been cleaned up to date, including:
- 19 acres capped in 2005 south of the hurricane barrier;
- seven acres cleaned north of Wood Street in 2002-2003;
- two acres dredged in 2002 for a business relocation;
- five acres of the most highly contaminated sediment dredged in 1994-1995.
Since 1983, EPA has spent more than $209 million in planning, engineering and construction costs for the harbor cleanup. The remaining 240 acres of contaminated sediment, including surrounding wetlands and residential properties, will be processed at the new 5-acre dewatering facility in the harbor’s North Terminal (the 55,000 square-foot dewatering facility and surrounding marine bulkhead and rail spur will revert to the city when the harbor cleanup is finished). An estimated 880,000 cubic yards of sediment are slated to be removed, roughly equivalent to 175 football fields each filled three feet deep.
Fish, lobster, quahog and other seafood from New Bedford Harbor and the Acushnet River contain high levels of PCBs, which can cause illness if eaten regularly. In 1979, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued restrictions on fishing and lobstering based on health risks from eating fish and lobster from the 18,000-acre New Bedford Harbor and Acushnet River estuary.
For more information about the New Bedford site, visit: https://www.epa.gov/ne/nbh/ .
Related Information:
Cleanup Process
Cleanup in New England
New Bedford Harbor
Web site
PCB's
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