High Levels of Lead, Contaminates Discovered at Framingham Playground

Proposed upgrades to a Framingham park and athletic complex are on hold, while the town deals with high levels of soil contamination at the site.

Framingham Town Manager Bob Halpin, in a presentation to Framingham Selectmen Wednesday night, said March test results of soil samples at the Mary Dennison Playground, on Beaver Street, revealed high levels of lead and other metals.

According to a report, the soil samples tests revealed levels that exceed the state’s standards for soil on which children can actively play.

However, Halpin told Selectmen, "there is no current need to close the park."

Halpin said the levels are serious and the Town of Framingham is awaiting a second set of tests.

The first set of tests - deep soil borings - were conducted by a consultant in mid-March to verify the contamination cap was still holding. The second set of tests will be shallow soil testing, Halpin told Selectmen.

Framingham Town Meeting member Judy Grove and several teens have been pushing for the Town of Framingham to make improvements to the Beaver Street Park and playground and to construct a skateboard park at that location. 

On March 7, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of responsibility for the town, explained Halpin.

The MassDEP letter, addressed to former Framingham Parks & Recreation Director Robert Merusi, stated the Town is responsible and liable to analyze, assess and cleanup the contamination at the park. MassDEP stated the "liability is 'strict,' meaning it is not based on fault, but solely on your status as an owner."

The land, which is now the Mary Dennison Playground, was given to the Town of Framingham in the 1950s by Dennison Manufacturing Company. The now 18-acre site used as a recreation and athletic complex, was previously used as a dump by the manufacturer. 

"Records indicate that the Town had come to know that there were issues back when the Town built a basketball court, according to an email from Merusi to David Foss of Foss & O'Neil Consulting in February 2014. 

Besides the basketball court, there is a baseball field and a playground on the site. 

Concerns that the athletic complex was built on a former landfill/dump for the manufacturer were first raised in the 1990s. 

"The Framingham Parks and Recreation Department maintains a file of documents and correspondence related to the site. Numerous documents in that file date to the time period from 1990 to 2001. It is common knowledge that the site is a former landfill. It is understood that soil samples were collected at the site and soil was characterized and managed according to best practices at the time of development of the park," wrote Foss to Merusi.

Merusi in a February email to the consultant wrote "our goal is to gain compliance and maximize recreational reuse potential for the site.

On March 19, 15 soil samples were taken of the fill layer, which was placed over an old landfill site and sits beneath an additional layer of topsoil presumably added at the time the actual park was constructed, explained Halpin.

"The screening and testing of this fill layer ... did not detect any presence of volatile organic compounds in the soil or any sign of odors emanating from the soil," said Halpin. "The results of that lab analysis became available in detail on Friday afternoon and do indicate a presence of certain metals and materials in the fill material that exceed S-1 standards. None of the results exceeded levels that would trigger the threshold of an Imminent Hazard and require an immediate response action."

"Based on the detection of COC at concentrations exceeding applicable MassDEP soil criteria, additional response actions are necessary at the site to pursue compliance with the Massachusetts Contingency Plan," wrote the consultant to the interim Framingham Parks & Recreation Director on March 28. "These future response actions will include characterization of the nature and extent of the identified releases, evaluation of risk posed to human and environmental receptors, reporting to MassDEP, and potential remediation. However, in consideration the Town’s on-going use of the site as a public recreational park and athletic complex, short-term response actions may be warranted."