Mayor says faith in Varian has been 'undermined' by change of plans
But Cahill also praises company for finding new information on how contamination is flowing to neighborhood
Mayor Mike Cahill said the goodwill that Varian has built up over the last few years with its contamination cleanup plan has been “undermined” by its decision to abandon a key part of the process.
At the same time, Cahill also praised the company for uncovering new information on a major pathway for the chemicals that will hopefully lead to a permanent solution at the site.
In a meeting on Thursday night at Beverly Middle School, Cahill told Varian officials that the community has been pleased by the extra effort the company has been putting into the cleanup.
But, he added, “In talking with some of the neighbors more recently that good faith, that goodwill has been undermined by the changes in how you’re proposing to move forward,” Cahill said. “I just want to say that in fairness.”
Cahill’s comments came in reference to Varian’s decision last month to abandon its plan to install an underground barrier along Tozer Road to intercept the hazardous chemicals flowing toward the neighborhood. The company said it could not install the barrier because the owners of two buildings on Tozer Road won’t allow the access to their properties that it needs to construct the barrier. (The barrier is not a physical barrier; it involves injecting solutions into the ground to treat the chemicals as they pass through in the groundwater.)
Cahill, Congressman Seth Moulton and State Senator Joan Lovely had all told The Beverly Beat that they opposed Varian’s decision to abandon the barrier. But neither Cahill nor Lovely, who were at the meeting on Thursday, pushed the company on that point.
Instead, Cahill said Varian needs to closely monitor the effectiveness of the new plan that it has proposed, and be open to the possibility of going back to the Tozer Road barrier if necessary. The new plan involves injecting solutions into the ground at the source of the contamination on the site itself at 150 Sohier Road, with the idea of getting rid of the chemicals before they start their downhill flow toward Tozer Road and the neighborhood beyond.
Varian’s consultants said they recently learned new information about the shape of the bedrock and the flow of the chemicals that led them to determine that the new method would be effective and would negate the need for the Tozer Road barrier.
“I know that the Tozer Road barrier provided a lot of comfort to the community,” said Carol Mowder of Jacobs, the company hired by Varian to conduct the cleanup. “It gave you this additional sense of protection and I get that. And when you have something that you’re really excited about proposed to be removed, I understand that causes a lot of frustration, and anger.”
But Mowder said they are convinced that the new plan is the better way to go. She showed 3D images of the underground geology that she said revealed a “major pathway” for the chemicals to flow toward the neighborhood. She said the company can now target the chemicals where they enter the fractured bedrock rather than intercepting them down by Tozer Road. Mowder said treating the chemicals at the source would be like “turning the spigot off.”
“I think it’s really fantastic that you’ve found this fissure because clearly it’s a significant pathway and so that really matters,” Cahill said.
Varian has described the change as essentially moving the barrier from Tozer Road to the 150 Sohier Road site.
“Nobody’s trying to pull a fast one,” Mowder said about the change in plans. “We’re in this business because we care. We care about people, we care about the environment. It’s our ethical duty. We’ve got P.E. licenses that we can lose. We’re doing this because we want to make a difference and we believe this is the best way to do that.”
Mowder acknowledged that Varian doesn’t know for sure if there are other major pathways that they have yet to discover, but said the company will keep investigating.
Jan Schlichtmann, a lawyer who has been helping the Voices of North Beverly neighborhood group, said he was “very impressed” with Varian’s new data and the “cutting-edge” technology it is using.
“I feel very comfortable that this is a better path forward even than the catcher’s mitt,” Schlictmann said, referring to Varian’s description of the Tozer Road barrier. “The closer you get to where the source is, you’re orders of magnitude safer.”
In the meantime, Varian is continuing with several other treatment methods on the property, including constructing a system that will heat up the ground under one of the buildings in order to vaporize and capture the chemicals.
The public can submit comments on the recent changes to the cleanup plan here.
Thank you as always for reading The Beverly Beat. I’ve been covering the Varian story for a long time and I feel it’s important to keep the community updated on what’s going on.
If you’re a free subscriber, I’d like to ask you to consider becoming a paid subscriber ($7 per month) to support The Beverly Beat and allow me to continue to keep doing these kinds of stories.
