Announcements and Key Topics
The EPA created response pages for each new Action Memorandum. To view the first Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site click here. To view the Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site - Removal Response II click here.
Site Background
In July 2018, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) responded to an odor complaint at an unoccupied residential lot at 85 McCabe Street in the Bliss Corner Neighborhood of Dartmouth, MA. MassDEP identified buried waste material and subsequently executed soil sampling for PCBs. Historical records were uncovered shortly thereafter that revealed that refuse dumping had been occurring in the Neighborhood since at least the 1930s. In May 2019, MassDEP conducted sampling at 18 additional properties in the Neighborhood. On half of these properties, a subsurface layer consisting of coal ash, glass (including fragments and intact containers), brick, and coal-clinkers was discovered, which came to be a defining characteristic of the contaminated properties. High levels of lead and PCBs were measured in several locations as well. MassDEP initiated a third sampling initiative in September 2019 at volunteer residential properties across the Neighborhood. The sampling results indicated a wide range of lead and PCB concentrations, many of which exceeded the EPA lead Removal Management Level and the MassDEP PCB Imminent Hazard Level. In October 2020, EPA received a request from MassDEP to provide residential sampling assistance, and from July 2020 through June 2021, EPA and MassDEP sampled almost 50 additional properties. In June 2021, MassDEP requested support from EPA to conduct removal actions at residential properties in the Bliss Corner Neighborhood.
Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site
From the time of MassDEP's initial request for removal action support in June 2021 through December 2024, EPA conducted removal actions at eighteen properties to address lead and PCB contamination in soil. These actions were supported by one Action Memorandum and four Action Memorandum Amendments approved beginning in September 2021 through May 2024 and an additional Action Memorandum and Action Memorandum Amendment approved in July 2024 and January 2025, respectively. Work in the Bliss Corner Neighborhood has proceeded under the monikers Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site and Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site Removal Response II.
Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site Removal Response III
Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site Removal Response III is a continuation of the work completed under the Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site and Bliss Corner Neighborhood Site Removal Response II monikers and addresses three additional residential properties in the Bliss Corner Neighborhood. These properties were selected due to average lead concentrations measured on the properties at more than five times the EPA Removal Management Level and in excess of the MassDEP Site-Specific Imminent Hazard Level for lead. Work is expected to begin in Spring 2025.
