Buzzards Bay Coalition completes salvage yard cleanup with more to come

For the past 15 years, the Buzzards Bay Coalition has been actively working to acquire some of the undeveloped land on the east side of the Acushnet River estuary in the towns of Fairhaven and Acushnet across the river from the North End of New Bedford.

Buzzards Bay Coalition President Mark Rasmussen said the stark contrast between the entirely urbanized one side of the river and the entirely natural east side of the river stands out.

“That’s really an opportunity to preserve a lot of the coastal ecosystem there that’s intact on the river with wonderful salt marsh, fringing maritime forest and the potential for a lot of public access to that part of the river which has been abandoned for a generation due to the PCB contamination in the harbor,” he said.

He said it’s not safe to be in that part of the river or to go into the harbor or in the mud due to the PCB contamination, so they are thinking ahead when it comes to their acquisitions. Polychlorinated biphenyls are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds formerly used in industrial and consumer products.

“Eventually the cleanup will be done, and we’ll make sure that we’re in a position to preserve it and get it open to the public in the long-term,” he said.

A plan long in the works

For about 20 years the Coalition had been in contact with the owner of Riverside Auto Sales and Salvage, an automobile salvage yard in Acushnet, proposing to share in the work of cleaning it up and ridding the site of multiple vehicles and all the scrap parts that were on the verge of the river’s edge.

Following the salvage operation, the cleanup of the remaining contaminated soils including heavy metals, hydrocarbons and some PCBs was completed, and the area has been covered and reseeded and is awaiting the next steps.

The Coalition discourages anyone from visiting the site because the federal Environmental Protection Agency has been working adjacent to their project to remove PCBs from the salt marsh and the edge of the river.

The timeline of the ongoing New Bedford Harbor cleanup will determine what happens next with the site, but Rasmussen said it could take two years before they finish that work. Once it’s completed, they will make plans to open the property to public access.

Looking forward to the full cleanup

Rasmusson said the auto yard is a key piece in the middle of other properties the Coalition owns so they are looking forward to a trail system, a place to put a kayak in the water and in general a place to enjoy the river after years without access due to the PCB levels.

Upriver of this site is the Coalition’s popular Acushnet Sawmill property visited by hundreds of people a week.

Rasmussen said the Acushnet River starts in East Freetown and flows through the New Bedford reservoir into Acushnet and becomes New Bedford Harbor, which is essentially the wider portion of the river.

He considers the end of the Acushnet River system to be the tip of Clarks Point in New Bedford and the tip of Wilbur’s Point in Fairhaven at the end of Sconicut Neck, and it flows into Buzzards Bay.

Residents of the new apartments along Belleville Avenue in New Bedford and the former mill complexes with views of the site have said they are particularly happy they no longer have to look out on a salvage yard and will look out on a nature preserve instead, he said.

Standard-Times staff writer Kathryn Gallerani can be reached at kgallerani@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @kgallreporter. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Standard-Times today.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: Buzzards Bay Coalition working to clean up land on Acushnet River