Wynn Everett Ceases Cleanup of Casino Site

SOMERVILLE, MA - Officials from Wynn Everett announced Tuesday it would halt cleanup on the proposed site of its casino until a key environmental appeal was resolved.

The appeal, filed by Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone in February, cites potential environmental consequences that construction and operation of the casino might have on the surrounding area, much of which is inhabited by lower-income residents.

Curtatone, considered one of the most ardent critics of the proposed $1.7 billion complex, has found himself in the midst of a heated public relations battle with the casino developers, who have placed much of the blame for delays and lost revenue squarely on his shoulders.

Wynn Everett President Robert DeSalvio and other top executives were joined at a press conference Tuesday by Julie Wormser, executive director of the Boston Harbor Association; EkOngKar Singh Khalsa, executive director of the Mystic River Watershed Association; and George Bachrach, president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts. After the decision to suspend cleanup was announced Bachrach implored Curtatone to drop the appeal, according to the Boston Globe.

Wynn has spent months getting rid of arsenic, lead and other pollutants from the 33-acre site but is now expressing concerns that further cleanup may violate environmental laws, the Globe said.

“If there was a legal way to continue with our site remediation, we would have done it,” said Robert DeSalvio, president of Wynn Everett, in a press release. “No one wants this site cleaned up faster than we do.”

In addition to stopping cleanup, Wynn said two weeks ago it would postpone the April groundbreaking of the project.

"I think it’s great that once Wynn addresses the other environmental and traffic impacts and is then able to move forward with the project that the site will be cleaned up. It’s been contaminated for decades," Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone said in a statement. "But to the extent that Wynn’s PR team claims there is a delay on the start of the cleanup, the responsibility for any delay lies squarely with Wynn. Wynn could solve this and get started if they chose taking constructive action over dishing out spin."

Curtatone added in the statement that Wynn had known about the city of Somerville's environmental concerns for more than two years and neglected to address them.

A spokesman for Wynn Everett refuted the mayor's claim, saying that the company had worked with Somerville over the course of three years to create twenty environmental and traffic plans, which were reviewed by three federal agencies, 12 state agencies, 14 municipalities and 20 local organizations.

Photo Credit: Wynn Everett