Site history: An active coal tar processing facility operated
at the Site from the 1890s to the late 1950s.
Location: Everett, Massachusetts.
Trustees:
Case status: Damage Assessment.
Overview: The Former Coal Tar Processing Facility Superfund
Site lies adjacent to the Island End River, a small inlet off of the Mystic
River estuary that empties into Boston Harbor. An active coal tar processing
facility operated at the Site from the 1890s to the late 1950s. The facility
was dismantled in 1960. High concentrations of polynuclear aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs) with a coal tar signature exist in the Island End River
sediment.
In recent excavations and road work, some vestiges of storage tanks have
been found, containing fluid-like, taffy-like and hardened tar materials. Tar
"boils" periodically erupt to the land surface in numerous areas on-site,
seepage has been noted and attributed to residual wastes from the processing
facility, and tar mats have formed along the shoreline of the Mystic and Island
End Rivers alongside and downstream of the site. In addition a chronic,
continuing release of a coal tar substance is readily seen exuding from the
protective shoreline boulders.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Massachusetts State Department of Environmental Protection have required
the permanent placement of a boom surrounding the property. The Massachusetts
Department of Environmental Protection is the lead regulatory agency for the
Site.
