Sawins Pond

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Sawins Pond is a man-made pond created in the 19th century in Watertown, Massachusetts, USA. Its banks were the site of an upscale hotel, and it was a popular fishing and swimming spot. It was then used by Hood Rubber company, and then BF Goodrich. They deposited scores of barrels onto the site, filled with rubber scraps.

Watertown, Massachusetts City in Massachusetts, United States

Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is part of the Greater Boston area. The population was 31,915 in the 2010 census. Its neighborhoods include Bemis, Coolidge Square, East Watertown, Watertown Square, and the West End. It is one of thirteen Massachusetts municipalities that retain the title of “town” while functioning under state law as cities.

Boston Edison/NSTAR and PCBs

Boston Edison Company (currently NSTAR) for many years operated a facility just behind the Watertown Mall. From this facility, there are culverts (large underground water drains) that carry storm water and drains under the mall parking lot, into the Sawins and Williams Pond.

NSTAR was a utility company that provided retail electricity and natural gas to 1.4 million customers in eastern and central Massachusetts, including the Boston urban area. NSTAR became a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities in April 2012. In February 2015, Northeast Utilities and all of its operating companies became one large company known as Eversource Energy.

Boston Edison used PCBs extensively in the 1970s and 1980s, and still does to this day, albeit on a much more limited basis. During the 1980s and 1990s, there were documented spills at the Boston Edison/NSTAR facility at 480 Arsenal Street. Most of these spills were transformer oil, most of which contains PCBs. In 1982, over 1,100 gallons of PCBs spilled from a truck and went into a storm drain. Unfortunately the spill was not realized by Boston Edison (now NSTAR) company until about a month later, according to EPA and DEP reports. Almost one thousand gallons of high PCB oil reached Sawins, some of it was recovered by Boston Edison company through remediation efforts on the property. The rest is likely to have made its way into the Charles River, with the balance remaining in the pond sediments and comprising the detectable elevated levels seen by scientists today.

Polychlorinated biphenyl any chemical compound from a series of congeners based on biphenyl skeleton, differing from other compounds of this group by a number and position of chlorine atoms

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Charles River river in Massachusetts, United States

The Charles River is an 80-mile-long (129 km) long river in eastern Massachusetts. From its source in Hopkinton the river flows in a northeasterly direction, traveling through 23 cities and towns before reaching the Atlantic Ocean at Boston. The Native-American name for the Charles River was Quinobequin, meaning "meandering".

NSTAR, a major New England public electric utility, is responsible for the PCB pollution, but has refused to pay for the cleanup or for any assessment/engineering costs.

Coordinates: 42°21′51.5″N71°09′07″W / 42.364306°N 71.15194°W / 42.364306; -71.15194

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

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