Natick Lab Superfund Site

by Gordon on January 5, 2008

The Army Soldier Center known locally as the Natick Labs is an EPA Superfund site with known contamination problems. In addition the Pegan Cove and the Middle Pond have contaminants in the sediments. To quote from the EPA:

“Soil, groundwater, and surface water are contaminated with various VOCs, naphthalene, Freon 113, and a variety of heavy metals such as barium, mercury, arsenic, copper, chromium, lead, and zinc have been found in various investigations. Contamination may threaten several municipal well fields. Contamination also may threaten Lake Cochituate, which borders the site on the east. People who ingest or come into contact with contaminated soil or groundwater may be at risk. In addition, the State issued a public health fish consumption advisory for lake Chochituate (sic) in May of 1996.” – US Environmental Protection agency.

There is a local Web site created and maintained by Natick resident Marco Kaltofen who is also the co-chair of the Restoration Advisory Board at Natick Labs which goes into great detail about the history and state of the site. The most recent report from the Advisory Board that I could find can be found here.

Contaminants in the Lake’s sediments restrict the techniques that might be used to mitigate the problem. As examples pulling milfoil would disturb the sediments and might contaminate the water, while drawing down lake levels over the winter to allow a freeze-kill of the weeds risks the contaminants to enter the air through dust.