Danvers Schedules Meeting To Discuss Contaminated Soil

DANVERS, MA -- The Danvers Department of Public Works, the Danvers Public Health Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have scheduled a meeting to discuss the clean-up of arsenic-contaminated soil from Brown Pond and a plan to temporarily store it at Pope's Landing. The meeting will be held April 23 at 6:30 p.m. at Riverside Elementary School on Liberty Street.

Town officials are considering using Pope's Landing to store contaminated soil removed from Brown Pond and have submitted a letter to the state asking for permission to do so. Under the plan, soil would be temporarily stored at Pope's Landing where it would be tested and eventually removed once the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determines where it should be disposed of.

In 2011 the EPA issued a report showing high arsenic levels from a former tannery on the property near Ash and Purchase Streets that is now owned by the town, according to the Danvers Herald, which first reported this story. This past winter the soil was stored at Plains Park on Conant Street, but the town is seeking to move the soil now that spring recreation season has started.

Danvers was rejected by the state with its request to store the soil on state-owned property in Danvers. The only other town-owned option is 7 Canal Street, where the town is planning to build a new DPW facility. That property was ruled out when the town determined it would set the DPW project back another year.

For more on this story, see the Danvers Herald. Subscribe to Danvers Patch for more local news and real-time alerts.

Photo by Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).