NEWS & LIFE
Coal Tar Oil Leaks into Seekonk River from Tidewater Site Coal byproducts leaked into the Seekonk River at the Tidewater Landing construction site. That’s the spot where a new professional soccer stadium is planned in Pawtucket.
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wo boats motored back in forth on the Seekonk River Thursday morning [December 2], towing white, absorbent booms in their wake. The smell of gas hung in the air. “We also see crews walking along the shoreline to the south of the site, with different absorbent materials,” pointed out Mike Jarbeau, Baykeeper for the environmental nonprofit Save The Bay, from a picnic table across the river. The crews were working to contain and clean up coal byproducts leaching from the soil of the nearby Tidewater site. For the second time in four weeks, oil got past the system of floating booms meant to keep it from contaminating the river. This is the spot where Fortuitous Partners plans to build a professional soccer stadium,
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accompanied by apartment buildings and retail space. But before the stands can be built and turf laid down, the site’s industrial histor y needs to be dealt with. The Pawtucket Gas Company built a gas manufacturing plant here in 1881 that converted coal, oil and tar into gas for lighting and electricity, according to National Grid. Over the next 90 years, byproducts of the manufacturing process, in coal tar and other toxins, soaked into the soil. National Grid now owns the property. The company began remediation work earlier this year, which will involve removing contaminated soil and capping the site. In the process, they removed a temporar y
cap, allowing gas byproducts to leach into the river. According to National Grid, booms had been set up in the water to capture contaminants during the cleanup work, but a portion of the oil breached the booms yesterday. “ That breach has resulted in a sheen that can now be seen on the water,” National Grid spokesperson Ted Kresse said in a statement. Kresse said a current likely pushed the oil beneath the surface, below the reach of the absorbent boom at the surface. The curtain hanging below the boom, he said, is designed to catch silt, not oil. “This is not how regulatory bodies or communities should ever, ever have to find out about oil spills–particularly when those spills are hazardous to human, animal, and ecological health.
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Photos by Sofie Rudin, courtesy of The Public’s Radio
In part nership with The Public’s Radio • ThePublicsRadio.org • By Sofie Rudin
