Braintree Mayor Opposes Clean Harbors Request To Resume Operations

BRAINTREE, MA — Braintree Mayor Charles Kokoros is opposing Clean Harbors request to resume regular operations after a trailer fire forced residents to shelter in their homes and prompted environmental concerns.

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection allowed Clean Harbors to resume temporarily limited operations on Feb. 27 after the business had been halted for 11 days.

However, a number of concerns need to be addressed before town officials are willing to support normal operations resuming.

Namely, officials said Clean Harbors needs to, at minimum, eliminate the storage of hazardous materials inside trailers on site.

Preliminary findings from an investigation into the fire point to materials inside several trailers which caught fire as a possible cause.

Officials said the fire was limited to these trailers and that, inside of them, Clean Harbors stored a mixture of paints, epoxy, oil filters, solvents and similar waste materials.

None of the buildings on the property were affected by the fire, officials said.

"The practice of storing flammable materials stacked within the warehouse must be reassessed to facilitate improved fire suppression, and on-site fire suppression capabilities must be upgrade," Kokoros said.

Additionally, permanent air quality monitors should be installed on-site and within the neighborhoods surrounding the facility in the hopes that they would provide real-time air quality measurements.

"Clean Harbors must commit to working with the Town and surrounding industries in East Braintree to develop an evacuation plan," Kokoros said.

"Until the foregoing items are addressed by Clean Harbors, the Town cannot support a return to regular operations."