Follow up on the Clean Harbors Fire

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As you know from our Friday email and our press release, there was a fire at the Clean Harbors Toxic Waste facility in East Braintree beginning around 10:30 on Thursday night (February 16, 2023). More information has become available as to the nature of the chemicals that were burned and the level of hazard at the time of the fire and going forward.

The list of chemicals burned is long, but here are just a few:

  • Methyl tetrahydrofuran

  • 2-Methoxyethlether

  • Aliphatic hydrocarbons

  • Waste gasoline, benzene

  • Waste paint

  • Waste xylene

  • Waste methanol

  • Toluene

A standard Google browse will bring up the chemical information on the more complicated sounding compounds and their toxicity. Our old friends benzene, toluene, and xylene are, of course, part of the BTEX toxins you have heard us preach about over the years in reference to the off-gassing of the compressor station. You know they are toxic. You know there are no safe levels. Of possibly even greater concern are the waste barrels. What other compounds were in the waste methanol? We may never know. 

Most of the 75 55-gallon barrels that burned were full of highly flammable compounds. Reports are also coming out that adjacent to the fire were another 97 barrels of high BTU fuel that if ignited by the fire would have given us a totally different outcome in the Basin and especially in East Braintree. We acknowledge and thank the fire departments of Braintree, Quincy, Weymouth, and Holbrook for keeping those other barrels out of the mix and for containing this hazard as quickly as possible.

A few things we need to consider:

  • As with the possibility of an emergency at the compressor station, why was there no coordinated effort to alert residents of the fire and possible dangers? We know that there is NO evacuation plan in any of the three Basin communities. We know that quick and safe evacuation is not even possible from the 1990 report on the Clean Harbors Waste Incinerator plan. 

  • Will there be a follow up by public health officials as to the possible harmful effects of the particulate matter spread by the fire? Our Purple Air monitors and the DEP's monitor all picked up dangerously high levels of PM2.5 (particulate matter 2.5 microns) and VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) at the time of the fire. Whether or not the the VOCs are of concern, the PM2.5 certainly is. Our communities have the right to know their exposure risks and if there are things they need to be watching out for with their health and the health of their children, loved ones, and even pets.

  • When will the Basin communities--with assistance from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency--finally issue a comprehensive plan of safety, communication, and evacuation for our residents? Or simply admit that we are a "sacrifice zone" for industry? None of the communities issued a reverse 911 during or after the fire. Mayor Kokoros stated that they did not want to cause panic. Cold comfort for those close to the fire's origins or those downwind in Weymouth and Quincy breathing toxins of unknown origin without their knowledge. As one elected official stated, when does worry of hysteria translate into liability for the towns? (And not to put too fine a point on it, we think more highly of our fellow residents and believe that more information is better than being kept in the dark!) 

Dodging a disaster is not a reason for complacency.

While this was not the compressor (this time!), these questions are pertinent to all of the toxic industries in the Basin. We, in our environmental justice neighborhoods, breathe the toxins from the compressor, Clean Harbors, the MWRA fertilizer pelletizing plant, Twin Rivers, Calpine, and BELD every single day. We are left to our own devices on how to escape should there be an emergency. And, our state public health officials blamed us for our ill health in the disgraced Health Impact Assessment issued for the compressor station. This is unacceptable. 

As ever, we will try to keep you informed about this and any other issues concerning health and safety in the Basin. There will be a Braintree Town Council meeting on February 28, beginning at 7:30 PM. The mayor, fire chief, and a Clean Harbors representative have been invited to address the council on this issue. We encourage residents of all three Basin communities to attend. 

As always, thank you for all that you do! Stick with us, Fore River Campers!