Framingham Selectmen Demand General Chemical Honor Cleanup Pledge at Leland Street Site

FRAMINGHAM — March 21, 2017 — Framingham selectmen declared they would pursue every legal avenue against General Chemical Corporation after the company told state regulators it had run out of money to clean up its contaminated Leland Street facility. Carol Boyes of the Board of Health told the March 21 Board of Selectmen meeting that only $1.8 million remains in a court-mandated financial assurance reserve while General Chemical's own licensed site professional estimated remediation costs at $3.3 to $3.5 million — a figure the town has long considered a bare minimum, with internal estimates running as high as $20 million for a permanent cleanup. Chairwoman Cheryl Tully Stoll pledged to the Health Department, "Don't not do something that needs to be done because it isn't in the budget — we'll find it," as the board authorized independent monitoring if DEP cannot fund its spring sampling round. The board also voted unanimously to adopt the town's 2017 Multiple Hazard Mitigation Plan, approved a $100,100 sale of an abandoned road parcel to Lifetime Fitness, and released $18,000 from the Handicap Parking Fines account for an accessible playground at Barbary Elementary School — backed by a combined $60,000 in CDBG and school capital funds. The Board of Health will take up the General Chemical matter at its April 5 meeting in the main library's Costin Room, with a larger public forum targeted for late April.