US EPA picks polluted Olin site in Massachusetts for expedited cleanup

An Olin chemical manufacturing property in Wilmington, Massachusetts, that closed down in 1986 is on a fast track to get cleaned up and redeveloped. On April 2, the US Environmental Protection Agency added the property to its list of contaminated sites targeted for intense action so they can be redeveloped. The EPA says it hopes to expedite a plan to address contaminated soil and surface water and to remediate the worst groundwater pollution at the site. Wilmington closed municipal water supply wells near the facility in 2003 because of chemicals released from the site. The EPA is acting under an effort started in December 2017 to pare down the federal roster of sites polluted with hazardous waste that are managed under the agency’s Superfund program. Some sites have remained on the Superfund National Priorities List for years or decades while final cleanup plans are drafted and implemented. The Olin site, which made specialty chemicals for the rubber and plastics industries, has been on that list since 2006.