There is a Wells G & H Superfund Site located in Woburn, Massachusetts. It is located in the Aberjona River Valley where deep channels of water have cut into the bedrock. Sand, silt and gravel have filled in the center of the trough and till has covered the top of the bedrock on the sides of the river.
Along this river since 1865 have been the sites of many industries and companies. The year of 1865 was the start of the leather industry in Woburn. The industry slowly converted to just industrial and commercial use by the time 1940 came around.
Through those years the Aberjona River was used as process water and a location for wastewater discharge. The town of Woburn became concerned about the upkeep of the river and the noticeable filth that was starting to buildup due to all of the wastewater that was directed into the river. In 1911 there was a law put forth that sewage and chemicals could no longer be discharged into the river. As the years went on more laws were created to stop the river from deteriorating to an even further state of filth. Despite all the laws put forth to stop discharge into the river, the river continued to become a mess. In 1970 MDWPC declared that the river was no longer available for use.
Since the river and Horn Pond, the pond that the river drained into, could no longer be used and the town of Woburn still needed drinking water for its steady population of about 35,000 to 38,000 people, wells were established around the Horn Pond. These wells had built in pumps to collect ground water. It was assumed the water collected in the wells would be safe to drink due to “ground filter”. That sadly was not true. Whenever a problem occurred among one of the wells, a problem being, taste or odor complaints, which was a sign of nitrates, ammonia nitrogen, sulfates and many other substances present in the water, they would simply build another well nearby.
Leukemia, among many other health problems soon started affecting the Woburn town and before you know it a court case in act.
In this court case five organic chemicals were named as contaminants and three companies were claimed as the sources of the chemicals.
One of the companies settled before the case even started, so going into the
case were the companies Beatrice and Grace. The interesting part of this case
was that it was divided into four phases. The first phase, which pertained the
most to Wednesday night’s talk, wanted to answer the question of who was
responsible for the VOC’s. The evidence needed to prove a state of guiltiness
or non-guiltiness was the evidence that the company was not using the chemicals at the “time” claimed that the chemicals were found in the water. Beatrice was found “not liable” and Grace was found “not liable” for 4 out of the 5 chemicals; they could not find evidence to say they were not using the fifth chemical in trial.
Since Beatrice was not found liable for contaminating the waters, they were not tried for the other three phases of the trial. Grace continued onto the next three parts of the trial, which concerned the probability that the contaminants could have caused leukemia, other health effects and the repercussions Grace would have to pay due to the contamination.
The site is now divide into three Operable Units to achieve MCLs for the VOC – contaminated groundwater.