Woman wants Haverhill cemetery soil tested after 'suspicious' waste dumped
HAVERHILL -- Dee O'Neil says she took plenty of photos to have evidence of what is likely hazardous waste dumped at St James Cemetery in Haverhill. The debris includes plastic 55-gallon drums, oil cans, and cleaning solvents.
"Seeing what was out there, I was very concerned," Dee told WBZ-TV's I-Team. "You're probably 15 feet from a flowing river right here." That is the Little River, which flows into the Merrimac River.
"This is not typical cemetery waste, by no means."
The cemetery is one of three in Haverhill owned by the Catholic Cemetery Association of the Archdiocese of Boston.
When Dee discovered illegal dumping at all three graveyards, she called the police, the cemetery association, and the I-Team.
"It sure looks suspicious if there are hazardous components. I'd be very concerned about the soil contamination, and water contamination nearby because these things, once they get into the ground and into the soil, they will move whenever it rains," explained Richard Peltier, a University of Massachusetts Amherst Professor of Environmental Health Sciences.
The Archdiocese of Boston told the I-Team that the debris has been removed and disposed of properly. Gates were recently installed to prevent illegal dumping.
This is not the first time people junked potentially toxic materials at St James Cemetery. Last July, police filed a criminal complaint against a man for dumping three plastic drum barrels containing pink fluid with the Simoniz logo on them. Simoniz is a well-known manufacturer of car cleaning solutions.
Dee wants the Department of Environmental Protection to do some soil sampling since the waste is located so close to the river.
Professor Peltier agreed. "The onus falls on the DEP to make sure that what's out there is relatively safe material that can be scooped up and brought to a landfill or if it's, in fact, hazardous waste that could be a threat to public health. So it's important to figure out what's in that sight before we declare that it's a safe or unsafe place."
DEP said a MassDEP inspector and the MassDEP Environmental Strike Force found the complainant provided no credible evidence that a release of hazardous materials occurred at this site, but a review of the incident continues.