Between 1946 and 1992 several sites in Massachusetts Bay were permitted for the disposal of industrial chemical and low-level radioactive wastes (LLW), dredged materials, munitions and explosives, and debris, including derelict vessels and construction materials. The EPA (Tordoff, 1991a-d) provided a compilation of most disposal site reference points. These points included buoys, lighthouses, lightships, and other landmarks and coordinates. Some of these points, such as the Dumping Ground ("DG") buoy, had been positioned at several locations over the years. Both the "DG" buoy and the Boston Lightship no longer exist, yet the former locations of these and other markers played critical roles in the designation of dumping areas and in directing  investigations. The following is a brief description of the categories of wastes disposed in Massachusetts Bay and a description of disposal areas that are in this GIS.

Categories of wastes disposed in Massachusetts Bay

Dredged materials were disposed in several areas, including the DG buoy, historic dumpsites, the Boston Lightship Dumping Grounds, the Foul Area/Foul Grounds, the "Interim" Massachusetts Bay Disposal Site, and the final Massachusetts Bay Disposal Site.

Industrial Chemical Wastes have been permitted for disposal in the bay at the Boston Lightship Dumping Ground, the Foul Area/Foul Grounds and later the Industrial Waste Site.

Low-level radio active wastes (LLW) were permitted for disposal at four sites and may also have been disposed around the "DG" buoy prior to permitting. Disposal sites for LLW include the Boston Lightship Dumping Ground, the Marblehead Light Site, the Southeast Massachusetts Bay Site, the Foul Area/Foul Grounds and later the Industrial Waste Site.

Records regarding the establishment of munitions and explosives disposal areas have not yet been located, but NOAA charts depicting reported locations of unexploded ordnance (UXOs) and one letter written by NOAA indicate that such materials have been dumped at the Foul Grounds/Foul Area, the North Dump Site, the Central Dump Site, and numerous locations throughout the bay and Gulf of Maine.

Construction debris and derelict vessels may have ended up at numerous locations throughout the bay, but accepted, if not permitted areas for disposal of vessels include the Foul Area and the Boston Lightship Dumping Ground.

Description of Disposal Sites

Historic Dumpsites (see ArcView shapefile dumpsite.shp): Three discontinued disposal sites are designated on various NOAA charts in western Massachusetts Bay.

The "DG" Buoy (see ArcView shapefiles dg_buoy.shp, dg_buf.shp, buoys_dd.shp): The Dumping Ground was located northwesterly of the Boston Lightship prior to 1974, in at least two locations. The "DG" buoy was cited permits in 1948 and 1952 and is depicted on NOAA Charts up to 1972 at two locations at different times off the town of Nahant (Tordoff, 1991a). Between 1974 and 1985, the "DG" buoy was relocated within the Boston Lightship Dumping Ground (BLS) (Tordoff, 1991a). [Note: According to Light List 42.40, the "DG" buoy was placed within the BLS Dumping Grounds between 1974 and 1985 at the request of the Corps of Engineers. This position does not play into LLW disposal operations as they had ceased prior to 1959, however, a fisherman reported redumping a LLW container at this site on 10 May 1978 (Bell, 1998)].

 

The BLS Dumping Ground (see ArcView shapefile site_vec.shp): The BLS Dumping Ground was cited in a 1953 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) permit as an area at least three nautical miles distant along a set of open ended vectors N.E. by E (magnetic) and E by N (magnetic) beginning at the Boston Lightship. According to Tordoff (1991a), this sector lies between vectors 40° 30’(Magnetic) and 63° 00’ (Magnetic).

 

Marblehead Light (see ArcView shapefile site_vec.shp): The Marblehead Light dumping ground was also cited in the 1953 ACOE permit. This dumping ground was located along vectors beginning from the light and running 299° 15’ (Magnetic) and 288° (Magnetic), according to Tordoff (1991a). The dumping ground began in this open ended sector at least 8 statute miles from the light.

The Foul Area and Industrial Waste Site (IWS) (see ArcView shapefiles iws_site.shp, mbds_pts.shp): The Foul Area or Foul Grounds, was renamed the Industrial Waste Site (IWS) in 1977.   The former names were derived from the material on the bottom that "fouls" or tears fishermen’s nets (EPA, 1989a). The Foul Area was designated as a munitions disposal area in 1945 (NOAA, 1992). On the present NOAA Charts it is identified with an "Explosives" designation. The Foul Area described as a point 056° True, 9.3 nm from the Boston Lightship (Tordoff, 1991b) was also designated for LLW, chemical, and toxic wastes in March 1957; although, a licensed disposal operator was directed to dump LLW materials in the Foul Area as early as December 1952 (USHR, 1981). On 16 September 1957, the U.S. Coast Guard set an Orange and White Buoy in the "Foul Area Explosives-Northern Edge" (Tordoff, 1991a). This lighted buoy was later moved to the center of the Foul Area.

The Massachusetts Bay Disposal Site (MBDS) (see ArcView shapefiles dsites.shp, mbds_pts.shp): Between 1977-1992, an interim Massachusetts Bay Disposal Site (MBDS) for dredged materials was designated that partially overlapped the IWS. In 1993, a final MDBS was designated as an ocean disposal site, which continued to overlap the IWS but in a more southerly orientation than did the interim site.

The Southeast Massachusetts Bay Site (see ArcView shapefile iws_site.shp): The SMBS location was designated in a permit by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) for the disposal of LLW from 1957 to 1959 (Janes, 1981; USHR, 1981; Tordoff, 1991a). According to Tordoff, the site was also permitted for the disposal of chemical and toxic wastes over a longer period of time. The SMBS was established at a given distance along vectors centered on the Boston Lightship and a single vector from Minots Ledge Light. While no narrative description of the site is apparent in the permit, the permit depicts a rectangular box as the dumpsite location (USHR, 1981). This box is evident on NOAA navigational charts for the area.

Investigations of Waste Disposal

LLW and Industrial Chemical Wastes: NOAA, EPA, and the Food and Drug Administration conducted investigations into the location of LLW containers and the threat to seafood safety and marine resources at four sites in Massachusetts Bay in 1981 and 1982 (EPA, 1984b). These same agencies conducted similar investigations at the Industrial Waste Site (IWS) and the former BLS Dumping Ground in 1992 (NOAA, 1996) and 1997 (Lindsay and others, 1998), and at the North Massachusetts Bay Site in 1998 (Polaris Imaging, 1998). Federal investigations (NOAA, 1996) at the IWS and the former BLS Dumping Ground in 1992 followed and complemented investigations by the EPA (1992) and the International Wildlife Coalition in 1991 (Wiley and others, 1992). The 1990’s investigations, which relied on remotely operated vehicles and manned submersibles for sea floor observations, encountered numerous waste barrels in and about the IWS. However, no radioactive containers were definitively found. Locations of these containers are provided on the GIS.

Just as a fisherman allegedly redumped a LLW container near the "DG" buoy in 1978, others have alleged that they caught LLW containers in their drag nets (Tordoff, 1991b,c). To avoid recapturing these containers, several fishermen claimed to have redumped these containers in a rocky ledge area off of Cohasset. The potential area harboring these redumped containers has been termed the Cohasset Redump area.

Dredged Material Disposal: The Foul Area served as a permitted repository for dredged materials from the 1940’s to 1977. In 1977, the "Foul Grounds" became known as the Industrial Waste Site (IWS). Between 1977-1992, an interim Massachusetts Bay Disposal Site (MBDS) for dredged materials was designated that partially overlapped the IWS. In 1993, a final MDBS was designated as an ocean disposal site, which continued to overlap the IWS but in a more southerly orientation than did the interim site. Numerous investigations, as summarized by ACOE (1988) and EPA (1989a,c, and 1992a) provided considerable information about these areas. Only a small portion of the available information is included in this GIS. Three discontinued disposal sites are designated on various NOAA charts in western Massachusetts Bay and individual high-backscatter dumps of material are evident in backscatter views in the vicinity of the two former "DG" buoy locations and the southern discontinued disposal site.

Potential Future Surveys (see ArcView shapefile surveys.shp): Three rectangular areas included in the Waste Sites coverage represent potential future survey areas. These areas are under consideration for future surveys of radioactive waste containers, based upon either their relationship to permitted disposal points that have not yet been surveyed, or reports of redumping of containers recovered during fish dragging operations. These areas include the west Massachusetts Bay Site (approximately 5 nautical miles (nm) by 5.6 nm), north Massachusetts Bay Site (approximately 5.6 nm x 8.3 nm), and the Cohasset Redump Site (approximately 1.6 nm x 3.3 nm).

Information gathered from various waste disposal site surveys in Massachusetts Bay is presented in four subchapters:

Coverages provided in Chapter 2:   (Summary metadata for files in the Chapter 2 view are listed alphabetically in the table below. For complete metadata, go to directory "9_biblio" on this CD-ROM and open the file metadata.mdb using Microsoft Access or the file Gismeta.htm using your browser.)