Concerns linger over cleanup at old air base

WEYMOUTH

October 13, 2011|By Emily Sweeney, Globe Staff

Weymouth officials say they have concerns about the environmental cleanup efforts at the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station, and have asked their congressmen to step in and make sure the job gets done right.

In a letter to the Massachusetts congressional delegation, the Weymouth Town Council expressed worries about how the Navy plans to deal with parts of the old air base, including three specific sites that might have been contaminated by harmful substances such as oil and solvents. The town officials are hoping their congressmen will put pressure on the Navy and the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up any polluted areas to the highest standard possible.

The Town Council’s concerns come at a critical time for the shuttered military facility, which is being redeveloped into a new “smart growth’’ community known as SouthField. Construction of homes is underway in one section of the property, which spans 1,400 acres in Weymouth, Abington, and Rockland, and the first residents recently moved into completed homes.

“The cleanup has been going on 10 years,’’ said Arthur Mathews, president of the Town Council. “We want to make sure those three specific areas are cleaned up to an unrestricted-use level.’’

Mathews said the Town Council sent the letter to make sure representatives in Congress were aware of those pending environmental issues before the Navy transfers the rest of the land to the South Shore Tri-Town Development Corp., the local redevelopment authority overseeing the SouthField project. A purchase-and-sale agreement is expected to be signed as early as Nov. 15.

The land transfer will be a significant milestone for the SouthField project, which would transform the swath of federally owned property originally built as a base for military blimps in World War II. It was one of many defense facilities slated for closure under the government’s 1995 Base Realignment and Closure program, and was closed in 1997.

In 1998, the towns surrounding the base approved a reuse plan to redevelop the property. LNR Property Corp., a private real estate firm based in Miami Beach, Fla., is serving as master developer of the project. Plans for SouthField include thousands of homes, retail shops, 1.7 million square feet of commercial space, a sports and recreation complex, a movie studio, and an 18-hole public golf course. According to the plan, more than 1,000 acres will be left as open space.

Because portions of the property were polluted by jet fuel, among other substances, the base is still a designated Superfund site, according to the EPA. The Navy has been in charge of the environmental remediation efforts, and the cleanup is ongoing. (The Department of Defense is funding the cleanup, and the EPA is the lead regulatory agency.)